GUELPH POLITICAST #179 - Guelph Stuff (Bernier, Library, and Council)

August is almost here, which typically means a slower pace of news coverage in Guelph since city council is taking the month off. To look at it another way, it’s the perfect time to stop, and take stock of the year so far before we dive into a very busy fall that has a federal election, and a lengthy budget season. You know what? It's time for Guelph Stuff.

As you know, Guelph Stuff is the Politicast punditry segment where in we talk about Guelph-related news items and share our thoughts and opinions about them. We will be joined again by Guelph Politico contributor Eli Ridder, and we will dive into a slate of topics that cover a wide range of concerns to the community, using our often serious, sometimes skeptical and occasionally whimsical points of view.

So what's coming up on this edition of Guelph Stuff?

First, we’ll discuss why covering the Maxime Bernier town hall mattered even though the local People's Party asked the press not to disclose where it had taken place, and we’ll talk about the local political bubbles and why it was important that the political press try and break through them.

Then we talk about the great library crisis of 2019. We will talk about the high expectations from the public engagement sessions, and then talk about the politics of where council and staff should go from here. There’s also a little bit of discussion about how the City of Guelph needs to get better communicating council agendas and deadlines with the people of Guelph so that they might better be able to take part.

And finally, we’ll look at council so far this year, and what the events of the first seven months of 2019 might tells us about what might happen in the last four, especially with a difficult budget process ahead.

So let's dig into Guelph Stuff on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!

Guelph Stuff will return. Council will be back in session on September 3, the Federal Election date is October 21, maybe, and there will be a lot more to talk about regarding the library throughout the fall.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.