50 Reasons to Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live in Guelph

 Welcome back to the Politico show everybody. To celebrate – so to speak – I’ve decided to take a cue for The Village Voice and concoct a list: 50 Reasons to Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live in Guelph. In some ways, politics bring out the worst in us, and before the new council starts up again, I thought it might be fun to take a moment and remember some of the reasons why we’ve all made this place home. So here are the 50 reasons in no particular order:

1. The Hillside Festival
2. Ed Video Media Arts Centre – Guelph’s only artist-run centre
3. McCrae House – Museum based in the birth house of “In Flanders’ Fields” author Col. John McCrae
4. The University of Guelph – Inventor of the Yukon Gold potato. Keeper of the largest archive of material by Lucy Maud Montgomery
5. Neve Campbell was born here
6. Robert Munsch makes his home here (and sometimes reads from his books to local audiences)
7. Canoe rentals at the Boathouse in the summer
8. The Albion Hotel – According to legend, Al Capone’s favourite watering hole when he was in Guelph, and supposedly his lady friend from Guelph still haunts the place. Also, $5 burgers on Mondays.
9. Old Jeremiah – The cannon at the U of G. Hasn’t been fired since 1916, but it’s still a sounding board for students.
10. The annual Speed River Clean-Up – The community cleaning the river together. Environmental, and awesome fun.
11. The Bookshelf Cinema
12. Actually, the Bookshelf period. Movies, books, meals and clubbing: All under one roof.
13. The Victor Davis bus doesn’t actually go to the Victor Davis pool.
14. The 50/50 draw at Guelph Storm games – Some people don’t even care what the charity is, they just want to win half the money.
15. The graffiti tunnel behind the bus station
16. The incredible indie filmmaking community here.
17. The U of G Arboretum
18. The fact that Guelph was one of the test cities for Mondex. (Remember Mondex? You can actually see one in the Civic Museum, if you don’t.)
19. The Church of Our Lady
20. Low crime
21. High volunteerism
22. The little known origins of the Guelph name. (Hint: It was named after the British Royal Family of King George IV,)
23. The funny mispronunciations, both purposeful and ignorant, that comes from a name like Guelph.
24. Frank Valeriote – No matter your political stripe, you have to appreciate how MP Valeriote assured that Guelph continued to wear Liberal red as all around us tried on Tory blue in the last Federal Election.
25. Steven Truscott – The most famous case of miscarriage of justice in Canadian legal history makes his home here.
26. The Farmer’s Market, and the fact that it’s held in the last remaining structure from when Guelph hosted the Royal Winter Fair.
27. The Wooly (AKA: The Woolwich Arms)
28. Thomas Ryan, inventor of 5-pin bowling, grew up here.
29. Guelph always comes out for zombies (See: Night of the Living Dead ’07, 1:16 PM, Mind’s Eye and Dead Genesis)
30. Guelph is home to Sleeman and Wellington Breweries.
31. The first Municipal Motorcycle Patrol was set up here in the Royal City
32. We’re a Musical Launching Pad: Edward Johnson, The Constantines, Jim Guthrie, The Barmitzvah Brothers, Green Go, The D'Urbervilles, The Kramdens, Tim Kingsbury of The Arcade Fire and many more.
33. We’re the only city in Canada to own our own rail line: The Guelph Junction Railroad.
34. The fact that you can’t ride your bike anywhere in Guelph without having to ride up a hill.
35. The mind-boggling bric-a-brac that you can find in window of Dis-A-Ray’s (and the Family Thrift Store before it).
36. Our cosmopolitan ambitions combined with our small town feel.
37. All the neat little cafes downtown (Red Brick, Capistrano, Cornerstone) along with the utter lack of chain coffee stops (Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Second Cup)
38. Strong voices across all political spectrums.
39. We kept Wal-Mart out of town for 10 years, and in the process stood with New York, Chicago and San Francisco as municipalities that were Wal-Mart free.
40. The “Mullet” quality of our downtown: business during the day; party at night.
41. Noah 23
42. Largest amount of green space per capita.
43. Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium
44. We have two rivers and a lake
45. The persistent urban legend that the city plans for Guelph were switched with those for Goderich. (And how that would explain the terrible mismatched roads in this city.)
46. Guelph Storm on Friday Nights.
47. Homewood – A world famous rehabilitation centre. We’re all about the healing here.
48. The number of urban legends, conspiracy theories and ghost stories involving Guelph. (ie: The Maple Leafs stole their name from a Guelph minor league team and Exhibition Park was based on New York’s Central Park.)
49. Half-Priced Aps (Appetizers) at Bobby O’Brien’s on Tuesday Night.
50. To everyone that thinks Guelph is too progressive, it’s because it’s right there in the town motto: “Faith, Fidelity and Progress.”