Student Rally for Education Tomorrow

The state of student engagement in activism has been sorely lacking recently, at least in my opinion. Call it blowback from the city's SLAAP suit on the Hanlon Creek protestors, call it apathy, or call it a student population too busy with the reality of being a busy student, but I thought that maybe the protests in Quebec last spring might have roused the sleeping giant in Ontario.

Better late than never, I suppose.

Below, please find a press release regarding a protest led by the Guelph Student Mobilization Committe, who will demonstrate tomorrow about the rising cost of tuition and accessible education in Ontario. Considering that the rate increases being fought in Quebec would see them pay roughly the same amount Ontario students paid 15 years ago, it's honestly a wonder why students weren't out in the street sooner.

City and U of G Wants Business Input

In the mood to do a survey, and help out the U of G and the City of Guelph? Probably not, but hey, why not do it anyway? The City's trying to figure out a better way to do business with business, and they're using the surveying power of the University of Guelph to help them collect your ideas.

Read the full press release below.

Guelph's Storm: 6 Trees, 2 Houses, 1 Car and No Floods

It seems that Guelph weathered (pun intended) the "Frankenstorm" Sandy with relative calm as compared to places like New Jersey and New York City, but he did take a couple of hits. 

The City released an information bulletin this afternoon outlining the damaged caused by Sandy in the Royal City. It's pretty superficial on the surface, but obviously there are some people in town who woke up this morning rather seriously affected. 

As for me, I managed to ride out the worst at work. At least I know what caused that the momentary flutter in the lights around 10 pm now. A little knowledge is a good thing.

Here's the bulletin from the city:

A Different Guelph Storm Altogether

The city has issued an information bulletin to all residents regarding the inevitable nasty weather that's moving towards us. Some basic stuff, but sometimes in these situations, the basics fall by the wayside.

Scroll down to get the lowdown from the City of Guelph staff. And be careful out there.

The Trumped Card

He said it was going to a "bombshell" and he said that news organizations like Fox News would want to cover it "big time," but what Donald Trump delivered was yet another instance of his seemingly bottomless capacity for idiocy and self-promotion.

On Monday, Trump called in to "Fox & Friends" and told them that he had a "bombshell" about Barack Obama that he was going to announce on Wednesday. As we all know, Trump is an avowed "birther" that has squandered precious time, money and air on the subject of the President's alleged (and untrue) status as a non-American. So when he went on air Monday morning, even the most Trump-skeptical, Obama-loving, left-crazy liberal were wondering what the real estate mogul and reality TV host might have on the President. 

It turns out he's got nothing. Or rather, he'd like to bribe Obama into self-incriminating. 

More Disasters in Tweeting

Yesterday, I talked about Danielle Smith's unfortunate tweet suggesting that the tainted beef from the XL plant in Alberta could be cooked and served to the homeless rather than deposited hook, line and sinker into a landfill. But Smith's slip of the tongue looks rather benign next to something the Toronto Sun's Sue-Ann Levy said on Twitter about Barack Obama Monday night.

You know Sue-Ann Levy, she's the Sun columnist that's constantly whiny about how her precious tax dollars are being spent on the homeless and city employees, and people not as lucky as her to sit behind a computer all day and spew her (mostly) misguided opinions. Like this one:

I Hope They Serve Beef in Hell

So this was the kind of royal screw up that Twitter was invented to exploit...

Farewell, Linc

It was sad news this weekend when we learned that Lincoln Alexander, former MP and former Lieutenant-Governor, had passed away at the age of 90. Naturally, on an occasion like this, I couldn't help but think of my first brush with Mr. Alexander. 

Federal By-Elections Announced

The first big test to the longevity of the Conservative majority will take place late next month with the announcement of three by-elections in three different ridings across Canada. Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement today that the ridings of Victoria (British Columbia), Calgary-Centre and Durham (Ontario) will be going to the polls on Monday November 26. 

But Harper won't be the only one tested on November 26, it will also be Thomas Mulcair's first election as NDP/Opposition leader. The question before us today is can Mulcair capitalize on the NDP wave started in 2011, or is the prospect of Trudeau-Mania just too good to refuse? Or maybe Harper's luck will hold, and he'll take all three seats. But how likely is that?

Sona's Talking (For a Change)

It appears that Michael Sona has shirked all national media - newspapers, TV shows and newsreels (that last one might be apocryphal) - in order to clear the air with, of all things, the University of Guelph student paper, The Ontarion.

Now that's not a knock against The Ontarion, it's bred many a fine journalist over the years, myself included. But surely Michael Sona - that is the same Michael Sona that was communications director for the Conservative Marty Burke campaign in last year's Federal Election, a campaign during which Sona guarded his candidate from the local media like one of the 300 Spartans facing down the army of Xerxes - wouldn't go to a local media source to tell his story, right?

Apparently, I was wrong.

Newsweek (In Print) Folds

It came as one of those not so surprising surprises this morning when it was announced that Newsweek, the second biggest news magazine in the U.S., will no longer be printing a physical edition as of the end of the year. After years of tough times for print, times that were especially though for Newsweek, which spent more than a year on the market before being bought by Tina Brown, it seems that this periodical is the latest, and greatest, to fall victim to the digital migration. 

McGuinty and the Parting of the Ways

Dalton McGuinty's resignation as both premier and Liberal leader yesterday was surprising for its timing, if not necessarily for the fact that McGuinty would want to step down after nine years as premier, and nearly 17 as leader.

But McGuinty leaves under a cloud, not just the recent political loss of the by-election in Kitchener, and not just because of the compounding scandals including ORNGE and the power plant cancellation. The news of his resignation came with the news of the proroguing of the Ontario Legislature as well, which, while being a legitimate parliamentary tool, has become under recent minority governments a way to duck and cover till the heat from a controversy dies down. In other words, McGuinty's taking the coward's way out.

When Controversy's Tapped

When the city cancelled a screening of a documentary called Tapped, seemingly at the behest of Nestle, the mob reaction was understandably upset. In the world of film publicity there's no such thing as bad press and now a movie that sits nestled between The Nature of Existence and Gasland on Netflix is getting the kind of attention that Michael Moore's invested years of self-promotion to get.

The screen of Tapped was to be part of Water Conservation Documentary Nights, a perfectly benign (and almost dull) sounding film series co-sponsored by Wellington Water Watchers and the City of Guelph's Water Services. Tapped was supposed to be the last film in the series screened on September 17, cancelled seven days before it was to be seen after John Challinor, director of corporate affairs at the Aberfoyle-based Nestle Waters Canada, wrote Mayor Karen Farbridge a letter outlining his dismay and disappointment that the city would co-present a film, which, as it turns out, does not cast his company in a good light.

We'll Do It Live!

Do you like listening to the Gang of Four on your radio every Monday morning, but have always wondered what it would be like to be inside the recording booth with us? No, you probably haven't, but that's okay because you're going to get your chance anyway.

The Post Game

Well that was painful to watch. Even Barack Obama's political foes had to admit that during last night's presidential debates, the president wasn't playing at par. Will there be a long term impact on the campaign? Has Republican nominee Mitt Romney stopped the slide after weeks of bad press? And just what the hell was that format? Let's break it down.