Guelph Police Warn Drivers About the Back to School Rush

This being the last weekend of summer vacation for all school-aged kids, the Guelph Police Service are reminding drivers that in the early morning, as of Tuesday, there will be more kids out and about, heading to and from their places of learning. Apparently, people forget that kids go to school when the calendar comes around to September again, even though the "Back to School" ads seem to start the first week of July now.

But kidding aside, I applaud the GPS efforts to get Guelph drivers to take care on the roads, but the fact of the matter is that Guelph drivers are a year around concern, and in more places than just the school zones.

Press Release - City's Credit Upgraded to AA+

There's a constituency of people in the city who feel that Guelph is always mere days from a complete economic collapse, that the Mayor and a majority of council are driving us over a fiscal cliff at the speed of sound. Then there's news like this. 

The Task Force Has a Plan for Back to School Too

I applaud the efforts of the Downtown Nightlife Task Force, the Guelph Police, City Hall, the Central Student Association and the University of Guelph, but having been downtown in the way early hours of Sunday morning, I can say that wrangling all those people is like trying to herd cats through an open field. But once again, there seems to be a plan.

Remembering a Dream

Today is the 50th anniversary of one of the most seminal moments in the history of Civil Rights, and one of the most often quoted and influential speeches in the history of rhetoric. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered on this date at the Washington Mall in front of over a quarter of a million people as part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Valeriote Gets Parliamentary Promotion

Parliament may be prorogued, but when it comes back in session in October our local MP Frank Valeriote will be sitting with a new role in the Liberal caucus, Deputy Whip.

New Transit Manager Hired

Michael Anders departure from City Hall wasn't exactly well-publicized, but then again what loss of an upper manager from a city post is? Still, the city sent out a press release today advertising the hiring of Phil Meagher as the city's new Manager of Transit Operations and interim General Manager of Guelph Transit. 

City Addresses New Termite Issues

Apparently, the City of Guelph can add termites to a list of concerns. Fear not though because your local government has come up with an action plan to deal with those pesky, wood eating creatures. 

New Doc-It Thursday Takes Us to The Manor

For its second monthly event, the documentary film series Doc-It is bringing to the Bookshelf a uniquely Guelph documentary, this year's opening night film from the Hot Docs film festival, The Manor. 

The film's namesake, the Royal City's sole gentleman's club, has an unexpected and heartfelt family story at its core. It's been playing off and on at the Bookshelf for the last few months, and from what I've heard director Shawney Cohen has been known to stop by, but this Thursday he's guaranteed to be there. So how and when should you be there? 

City Updates About Farmers' Market Renovations

The summertime renovations of the Farmers' Market's downtown location has not been without controversy; many of the downtown businesses have been irked by the inconvenience and loss of foot traffic, while I've heard from some people that new locale in the arena at Exhibition Park is an improvement over the the old Gordon Street building. But whether you like the Exhibition Park locale or not, one thing is certain, and that's the Farmers' Market will be heading back downtown to its renovation digs next month, and the City of Guelph today put out an update on the constriction.

...And Then I Had to Defend John Baird

It's probably a terribly kept secret that a lot of my own personal political views don't line-up with those of the Conservative Party of Canada, or many of it's members, including those who currently serve in the Government of Canada. But today, I want to come to the defense of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who had the audacity earlier this week to be vocal in his condemnation of new anti-gay laws that recently came into effect in Russia. So first of all, thanks to REAL Women of Canada for sponsoring this moment of bipartisanship.

So Long Sun News?

In a much anticipated decision, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) this morning decided not to give Sun News Network and a dozen other channels "mandatory coverage" on Canada's cable and satellite services. So for fans of Sun News, be they legitimate or ironic, the question is what will happen now to the channel that wants to be Canada's alternative news voice?

The Problem with Hudak?

The knives are out! At least that's how the Toronto Sun is putting it, and it kind of sounds a bit like something Arnold Schwarzenegger might yell at a squad of bad guys before he, himself, takes out the knives.

But the knives in this instance have Tim Hudak's name written all over them. Apparently some upstarts, and not-so-upstart members, of the Ontario Tory membership feel that a showing of one out of five in last week's by-elections is reason enough to say "Sayonara" to the leadership of Hudak. It's an interesting question: with the Liberal government under perpetual seige, is the one thing keeping the Ontario PCs from seizing power at Queen's Park Tim Hudak? As a wise man once said, "Short answer yes, with an if; long answer no, with a but..."

Sometimes the Answer is No

On the subject of uncomfortable moments at the recent city council meeting, Maggie Laidlaw wasn't the only one left feeling a bit frazzled.

As reported in the Guelph Tribune, Ward 4 councillor Cam Guthrie was raked over the coals for perhaps being a bit too florid in his responsiveness to the developers of the Costco site in the city's west end. After receiving an e-mail from the Costco project manager the week before expressing concerns that construction had been delayed by July's rainy weather, Guthrie spent a few hours on Sunday doing a door-to-door straw poll of the people in the area of the construction site to see how they'd feel about allowing heavy construction on Sundays to allow the workers to play catch up.

Ontario By-Election: Everybody Wins-ish

The results are in from last night's quintet of by-elections in Ontario, and the news seems to be everybody wins. Sort of. In a score of 2 to 2 to 1, the five seats seemed to have ended up evenly split between the three major parties, indicative of the split-mindedness of the province in the current polls.The Liberals secured wins in Ottawa South and Scarborough-Guildwood, the NDP won in Windsor-Tecumseh and London West, and the PCs took Etobicoke-Lakeshore. So now what?

It's Not Voter Supression

It's by-election day in Ontario! And while it's tough to say how it will all work out in the five ridings going to the polls today, I will say that despite the jokes I've previously made on Gang of Four, it's neither unlawful nor immoral for Kathleen Wynne to have called an election for August 1. 

While tuning in to Global's Morning Show this morning - which I hate-watch merely because it accounts for the 10 minutes of my day before I leave for work - I was granted a rare moment of insight from the show. The comments was made that with the rain this morning, and that if it persisted, the already predicted to be low voter turnout might be lower because... People don't like to vote in the rain. And then it hit me, does it really matter when we hold an election? Because clearly there's a whole segment of people out there who are basically looking for any reason not to have to vote.