GUELPH POLITICAST #106 - Guelph's Crooked Media

Before we wrap up 2017, let's review the year that was at city council. That's 12 months of decisions and debates on all matters of local governance from big items like merging hydro, to smaller items like approving sign bylaw variances. To take this one on, I needed a team. A group of people that observe city hall as closely as I do. Let's assemble Guelph's Crooked Media.

Are the Argos Coming Back to Guelph for Training Camp?

Mercury file photo of Argos training camp at U of G, circa 1981.

Flashback! The local sports rumour mill is churning with mention of the possibility that the Toronto Argonauts might be holding their 2016 training camp in the Royal City. Specifically, at Alumni Stadium at the University of Guelph.

Worth Repeating - A Resident's Letter About Transit Improvements

I haven't had much time to record my own ideas here lately, so now I'm resorting to posting other people's ideas. A local writer and activist named Brandon Kidd, whose named I've heard before but I can't recall if we've ever met in real life, sent an interesting letter to the Guelph Tribune that outline a few points for potential improvement for Guelph Transit. 

Budget 2015 Update - Opening Moves

The year started off with council already contentious about the budget process. Mayor Guthrie had announced his intention to bring a motion to the January 19 council meeting that would state that the city government should set itself the goal of not raising taxes anymore than the rate of inflation for the coming fiscal year. Of the seven councillors out of 12 that responded to the Guelph Tribune's request for comment, four were against the motion and three were against. Although the motion has since been delayed, some feel as though the mayor was going too far too soon.

Guelph Citizen Sticks Up for Me and Every Media Outlet in Guelph

As they say, if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen, or in my case, if you can't take a little criticism, get out of politics and/or the writing of politics. There's fair criticism, there's constructive criticism, and then there's being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. That's Gerry Barker. Barker is a former journalist who maintains his own blog called Guelph Speaks, but he's also the founder of GrassRoots Guelph, a purportedly non-partisan organization dedicated to getting out the vote no matter who you vote for. Supposedly. Apparently Gerry, unlike every other group no matter their interest in the Royal City, doesn't like the coverage he's got.

Farbridge Campaign Takes Credit For Controversial Ad

It wasn't exactly a "whodunnit?" on par with Agatha Christie, but when the Guelph Tribune appeared on doorsteps across the Royal City Thursday, one ad in particular caught their eye, and it was unknown who might have placed such a provocative bit of negative advertising. The ad, pictured above, features a photo accredited to a Guelph Mercury photographer of Cam Guthrie in conversation with Michael Sona at a Federal Election debate at Lourdes in 2011. The photo is accompanied by the tagline, "A person is known by the company they keep." Although placement of the ad was next to one for the Farbridge campaign, there was nothing to say the two came from one and the same source. Until now. Last night, in a press release, the Farbridge campaign did confirm that they placed the controversial ad.

Marty Says Mea Culpa

Yesterday's conviction of Michael Sona managed to do the impossible, prompt a response from Marty Burke. Burke was the Conservative candidate for Guelph in the 2011 Federal Election, and it was under his auspices that Sona, in party with others, allegedly launched the robocall scheme to misdirect nearly 7,000 to a fake polling station. Burke fought tooth and nail to keep himself and his name out of the media during the entirety of the investigation, arrest and trial of Sona and the robocall crimes, but now that it's all over (for now?) Burke is talking, and apologizing.

She's Back! Laidlaw Makes it Official

If she wins, she'll be the longest serving councillor on Guelph City Council, but that's unlikely to make her any less a divisive a figure. Today, Maggie Laidlaw submitted her papers to make her campaign for a fifth term around the horseshoe official, and joining the already very busy Ward 3 race. Laidlaw is the fifth candidate to be nominated for Ward 3, and is the first incumbent of Ward 3 to make official her desire to run again. But in an already tight race, can Laidlaw make her mark, and a case for her re-election?

Overtime Overboard?

The latest money-related controversy shaking City Hall involves overtime. Actually, make that excessive overtime. The city's new internal auditor, Loretta Alonzo, told city council last night that overtime costs could clock in at $5 million by the end of 2013. That's a lot of overtime, you may joke. That's a scandal, deficit hawks may say lividly. That $5 million figure is across all city services, but the focus of much of the discussion is around the one service that takes up one-fifth - or $1 million - of that cost, Guelph Transit. According to the city, there's a 25 per cent rate of daily absenteeism among transit employees, with some employees taking as many as 50 sick days per year. If the average number of days worked a year, accounting for weekends and two weeks vacation, is 250, that means that some employees are off sick one-fifth of the year.

University Students Prove to Be Good Influences Too

It's not been a good fall for the students at the University of Guelph, as a few bad eggs keep spoiling their rap with the local townies. Shoot, even just yesterday a letter in the Guelph Tribune highlighted again the alleged drunk and rowdy behaviour of the undergrads at the U of G. 

 But the university students of Guelph also do a lot of good in the community, as once again evidenced by the food and donations collected in the annual Trick or Eat campaign. According to The Ontarion, U of G students collected $70, 498 in food donations on Halloween night, with an additional $6,000 in online donations. Guelph's nearest competition in total donations, at least in Ontario, were Western and Carlton with $12,000 each. 

The U of G's efforts on Halloween comes out to over 35,000 lbs of food. That's a lot for a couple of hours of work, and while others might rest on their laurels, Gryphons, being a different breed, can't let it slide that this year's total was down slightly over last year. To make up the difference, bins have been placed at local Zehrs and No Frills stores for donations. Of course, if there was one accomplishment that separated this year's Trick or Eat above others in the past is that volunteers made their way to my front door for the first time in years.

So in the midst of a heavy fall, where the majority of university students are getting tarred by the actions of an above average rowdy few, it's important to remember the good works of the silent majority. And that in the cold days to come, several less privileged people in the Royal City will enjoy something to eat courtesy of a University of Guelph student. 

 Just something to keep in mind the next time you see someone under 21 and you go to grab your pitchfork and torch.

Is Resistance Futile?

I'm a big fan of Councillor Can Guthrie, and I appreciate his outside the box approach to civic engagement, but when yesterday he called for an end to the Occupy Guelph movement, I couldn't have disagreed more.

Leaving aside the fact that yesterday a lot of the tents in St. George's Square were already packed up, but the statement from Guthrie quoted by the Mercury seems to align him, on the issue of the Occupy Wall Street protests, with politicians like Rob Ford and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. The point, they seem to think, is to get the protesters out of sight and only then can we properly focus on the issues they're concerned with.

But as Rachel Maddow pointed out on Real Time with Bill Maher a couple of weeks ago, the point of a demonstration is to be inconvenient. The point is to get in the way of people, slow down the wheels of progress, take up people's time, get them to stop, make them think, make them talk... It's the same theory behind strikes and other worker action, make things inconvenient for the management, show solidarity - a united front - and they'll have to give into your demands.

At least that's how it's supposed to work. If there's a criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement it's that maybe its scope exceeds its grasp. If the goal is to convince corporations, financial institutions and wealthy individuals to work to equalize the growing income gap, that's easier said than done. Even in the wake of accepting massive government bailouts, it wasn't six months later that news about executives getting huge bonuses started making headlines. It's no coincidence that the first rumblings from the then nascent Tea Party began to make waves shortly thereafter.

Interestingly, there are some comparisons between the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, at least until the Tea Party became the pre-eminent voice in the Republican Party. They're both grassroots movements started to oppose corporate greed and government collusion in making that greed possible. But at some point, the Tea Party became purely anti-government; the fault of the bailouts lies not with corporate mismanagement, but with the government signing over the loans to cover it.

But in those early days, the Tea Party was just as ramshackle, disorganized and unfocused as people accuse the Occupy Movement of being now. Of course, Guthrie is one of those people claiming that the Occupy movement, at least in the case of the Guelph wing, is that they have no coherent message. “It was about a five-minute ramble and not one coherent message at all,” Guthrie said about talking to one of the protesters. “If you can’t even give me a coherent reason why you’re there … you’ve turned from being protesters into being campers.”

I can't say who Guthrie talked to or what they said to him, but in any movement that's gathered steam, it is naturally going to attract anyone with a message. As much as we talk about the internet age and it's million pipelines, there's still a lot of difficulty in trying to get your message heard by the masses. But I think the key to getting the Occupy movement is to understand that it's about the general message, not the specifics. The fact that one per cent of the people controls 40 per cent of the wealth is galling. The fact that the divide between what CEOs make and what the average worker makes is exactly the same now as it was before the Great Depression is unacceptable. And the fact that lobbies representing the interests of the wealthy have managed to convince middle class people for so long that raising taxes on the rich is an attack on people of all incomes may be the greatest long con of all time. 

But here's the thing: in Canada we fared the economic troubled waters far better than anywhere else in the developed world. In terms of the near-Depression, Canada was financially akin to that place in all the zombie movies that the survivors are trying to get it: an untouched paradise where the evils of the world can't reach. The financial deregulation that happened in the United States didn't happen here, and the Bank of Canada never put the seal of approval on sub-prime mortgages. That resilient economy that the Harper government likes to talk about, exists because of Paul Martin. Of course, many Conservatives were calling for Canada to follow suit with U.S. deregulation,and in 2008, just months before the crash, the Conservative government was still projecting huge surpluses for the foreseeable future. Hindsight is 20/20, true, but it shows that the current stewards of our economy may not be everything they think they're cracked up to be.

But back to the protest downtown, which, I'll admit, was a little lackluster. Certainly, I've seen more energetic protests downtown, but a point that Alan Pickersgill made in his Guelph Tribune column intrigues me. Pickersgill suggested that the Occupy Guelph protesters should have set up shop in the Wal-Mart parking lot. "The protest would be a lot more meaningful, although a lot riskier, if the tents were set up in the Wal-Mart parking lot," Pickersgill wrote. "If any one thing has materially hurt Guelph, it is that store. The entire eastern section of town has no commercial outlets bigger than Big Bear because of Wal-Mart. The symbolism would be perfect. You can park and sleep in your RV on a Wal-Mart parking lot, but would they tolerate a tent village? For how long? It is a lot safer to protest downtown."

That's the thing about this recent hate-on for Occupy Guelph, it really was a safe protest, it terms of both the physical safety of protesters and passersby, as well as the choice of protest venue. We don't have a "financial district" in Guelph, but if one business in our town is emblematic of  "too big to fail" it's Wal-Mart. Suppose for a minute that something happened and all Wal-Mart stores nationwide closed. In many places, the only store with a wide variety of affordable goods is Wal-Mart, and if the local Wal-Mart were to suddenly shut its doors where would people go then? 

The thing about a monopoly is that once you have it, it all depends on you. In a way, being "too big to fail" should force a higher degree of social responsibility from these companies, but the need for bailouts prove this is not the case. Perhaps paradoxically, that as Guthrie and his fellow councillors face the harsh realities of the new budget, and with a legion of taxpayers demanding fiscal prudence with viscous tongues, the Occupy Guelph protesters are merely demanding the same thing of corporations.

Paging Wet Blankets

I wish to take a moment to highlight a letter received to the Guelph Tribune and published last week. It’s from Mitch Fountain, and it’s basically one of the few articulations as to why a transit fee hike is a good idea.

"There were lots of good letters from both sides on how budget restrictions may affect bus service in Guelph."

I honestly haven't heard a lot of support for one side, and if anything all the momentum is on the side of those that oppose cuts to Guelph Transit. Want proof, see the delegations at the City Council meeting this week. Also, see the councillors who themselves are trying to backpedal  by having staff look at the cost of keeping 20-minute service in summer, and reinstating stat holiday services.

"The fact remains, though, that we the taxpayers, especially the ones who have never ridden a city bus, cannot afford to continue with these high annual tax increases."

Hmm. Well, I don't use the city's soccer fields. I don't use the Victor Davis pool. I don't visit the library in the south end. I don't walk on the sidewalks on Clairefield very often.

I also don't rent games from the X-Box 360 section of Rogers Video. Nor do I ever go in to the 7-11 at Victoria and Eramosa. And I have never attended Festival Italiano.

This is a ridiculous argument: I don't use a service, ergo I should not have to pay for it. Transit it there for people that need to/want to/have to use it. Like garbage pick-up. You don't have to leave your garbage and recycling on the curb for the city to pick up, you can always drop it off at the dump yourself. Cherry picking the services you want to support will have the same effect as the school vouchers argument in the U.S.; some services would be flush and others would be left indigent.

"What is the real cost of a bus ride in Guelph?"

 It's $8.9 million. That is what it cost in the year 2010, anyway. It's right there in the budget document.

"Why don’t we figure that out..."

They did. And they do every year.

"...then put the buses back into Sunday/holiday service for the routes that make sense with a Sunday/ holiday rate?"

Not necessarily bad ideas. Why does the #24 run the full Industrial sector on Sundays? And a lot of University bus routes like the #57, #58, and #59 don't run on the weekend already. Special holiday rate, I'm not opposed per se, but having different rates on certain days of the week or times of the month doesn't make a lot of sense if we're trying to promote consistent and  regular transit use. "Honey, is today a $2.75 day or a $3.25 day on the bus?" Reduced service on certain routes at off-peak times is something other transit systems do, but I can't think of any with rotating rates. 

"No impact to the taxpayer, and people who need to get to work or wish to go to a park can do it for $5 or $6."

People who take the bus don't need to get to work? Interesting. 

"That’s what it costs for me to drive there in my Jeep!"

It actually costs you a lot more than that when you factor in gas, maintenance and insurance of your Jeep. And while we're on the subject of paying the true cost for things, why don't you start paying the full price for gas? It's an industry still heavily subsidized in North America in the interest of making it as cheap as possible. 

"City workers facing summer layoffs could even pick up some overtime shifts. Wouldn’t that work?"

I'm not sure what your definition of "layoff" is, but it generally means no work of any kind for those affected. How many "overtime shifts" would a driver have to do a week in order to make up the lost salary of their full-time job? And while you're at it, multiply that by 22, which is how many drivers were laid off last summer.

Overall, this letter sticks in my craw (as it were) for a kind of base ignorance it has. It's an attitude I keep hoping we'll grow out of, that bus service is beneath some people and is an option left open only for poor folks, students and hippies. It's okay to piss on them because, well, I guess because some of us live in a world were Scrooge was never visited by Marley and the Christmas Ghosts. (Incidentally, the name of my new band ;-) 

Just another reminder that for some people in Guelph, all services are sacred except transit. We shall see if council can resits the urge to acquiesce.

Clean-Up Crew Wants Feedback

It would seem that the annual Speed River Clean-Up isn't drawing the numbers it used to, and the Clean-Ups organizers, the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) is asking for feedback from the community on how to make it more appealing. The story was published in a recent edition of the Guelph Tribune.

“The spark has gone out of it,” said Alison Morrison, Speed River Project co-ordinator. “Our numbers are dwindling, and we’re not even sure of the impact of sending 200 people into the river on a Saturday morning,” said Morrison.

But numbers aren't the sole concern for OPIRG as they're looking to re-energize the 30-year-old event. As Morrison says, the idea of going out into the river and removing the trash, while once being novel, does nothing to address the main issue: the fact that people keep dumping garbage in the river.

So amongst the suggestions already on the table is paternerships with community groups and holding further, informational events throughout the year. But not to worry, says OPIRG, they want to know what you think on the matter too. What are your suggestions for improving the Speed River Clean-Up? OPIRG requests that you post them here.

Regardless, I don't think anyone can deny that the Clean-Up still has a part to play in the community. It's a fun event that raises awareness in a very practical way. Granted, there's still more that needs to be done to keep awareness and action going through the year, but I'd hate to this event disappear, or written off as ineffective. Like the man said, every little bit helps.

You know who I mean