Guelph Politico: March 2018

Saturday, March 31, 2018

The Politico Calendar for April 2018

It's just a month now until we start two different elections, but until then there's more than a few political and cultural events in the Royal City to keep you occupied.

MANGEZ! Dine Safe Guide for March 16-31, 2018

Twice-monthly, Guelph Politico posts the latest inspection results from the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit inspection of local restaurants, hotels, cafes, grocery stores and other businesses that handle food. We call it "Mangez!", and this column highlights the latest inspections done by WDGPH, and the results they've posted.

GUELPH POLITICAST #118 - Mapping the Ward, An Update

The Ward. It's so ubiquitous to the city that you don't even need to identify it by its full name. It's just the Ward. In the (not literal) shadow of downtown, the Ward is one of the oldest parts of Guelph, and it's seen a lot of changes over the decades, but perhaps none so pronounced as what's happening now. The question: might there be some resentment about that from long-time residents?

Former PC Nominee Mooney Becomes Ontario Alliance Candidate

Famously last summer, Thomas Mooney decided that he couldn't run for the local candidacy of the Progressive Conservative Party due to the old leadership of Patrick Brown. It turns out, even under new leadership, he doesn't want to be the face of the PCs in Guelph and has instead found a new party to run for. Quite literally.

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for March 26, 2018

Council finishes some unfinished business from the last month before beginning a busy April. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of tonight's council meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow the tweets below.

Guelph Politico Moderates [Almost] All Candidates Panel

In a vexing turn of events, Guelph Politico was invited to moderate an all-candidates meeting at the University of Guelph-Humber on Friday in advance of the provincial election. The topics were largely educational in nature, but might we be here looking to the future and what the tenure and tone of the debate will look like once the writ is dropped?

This Week in Press Releases - March 19-23, 2018

Every week, the City of Guelph and other groups send out notices to announce new events, imperatives, and information that you need to know. Here is this week in press releases.

Committee of the Whole Preview - What's on the Agenda for the April 3 Meeting?

Public Services and Corporate Services will both have items before this month's committee, and that includes some high profile items like the election signs bylaw, updates to the taxi bylaw, and the introduction to the process for the transit service review.

GUELPH POLITICAST #117 - Regional Transit

If you don't have a car in Guelph, how do you get to Cambridge? Well, you can get the Greyhound to Kitchener at one of the few times a day it departs and then transfer to Grand River Transit at Sportsworld Drive. You can also take the GO Bus to the Aberfoyle "Park and Ride", wait an hour and get the bus to Kitchener from there. Either way, you could probably walk to Cambridge faster...

LIVE BLOG: Mayor Guthrie's Transit Town Hall

Mayor Cam Guthrie wants to know to know what's wrong with Guelph Transit, and he's gathering people at City Hall tonight to ask directly about it. You can follow the action on Twitter, or through the link below.

Monday Morning Massacre at the MRF

A lot of people showed up for work at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) this morning, and found out that they may not have a job there for too much longer. In all, 18 employees of the MRF will no longer be working there as the City of Guelph tries to streamline the operation in advanced of the completed service review coming back to council.

With so much at stake in the coming provincial election, the local NDP riding association hosted a markedly laid back affair at the 50 West Restaurant in the Delta Hotel Sunday afternoon to introduce members to the three contenders vying for their party's nomination.

Bye Bye Bailey Bridge! (Video and Photos)

It was a day long in the making, the dismantling of the Bailey Bridge that has served the people in the area of the Niska Road for more than four decades. But this no demolition. Like it's wartime origins, the bridge once again became a tool of the Canadian Forces, this time for training purposes, as soldiers from St. Thomas and Waterloo detachments took part in removing the Bailey Bridge from its Niska Road home.

City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the March 26 Meeting?

This last council meeting of the month should be brief as the horseshoe handles some left over business from meetings in the recent past.

Q&A with Liberal Candidate Sly Castaldi

Sly Castaldi has spent the last decade and a half as the executive director of Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, but now she wants to make the leap to a much larger world. Castaldi is the one that will be asking Guelph to stay red and allow her to succeed Liz Sandals as the Liberal MPP of this riding. For today though, Castaldi answers some questions from Guelph Politico about why she wanted to run for higher office, what she's looking forward to, and most importantly, having a Twitter presence where her predecessor did not...

Mlynarz Steps Up for Local NDP Nomination

It's been hard for the NDP to make any news lately, but with time ticking down to the dropping of the writ for the June 7 Ontario vote they can't afford to others take the limelight. Guelph, it's time to meet a person that might end up being your New Democratic Party choice for MPP...

GUELPH POLITICAST #116 - A St. Patrick's Day Special

Things were going pretty well. It wasn't perfect, but it seemed like Town and Gown had found a way to perfectly co-exist inside the City of Guelph thanks to the diligence of City Hall, the police, the university, and student groups. And then Homecoming happened...

How Did Guelph PCs Vote for the Leader?

Doug Ford is the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. No matter how you feel about that development, it happened, and now the starting line-up for 2018 Provincial Election is set. But before moving on, let's take another look back. How did Guelph members of the PC Party vote in their highly contentious leadership campaign?

This Week in Press Releases - March 5-9, 2018

Every week, the City of Guelph and other groups send out notices to announce new events, imperatives, and information that you need to know. Here is this week in press releases.

City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the March 19 Meeting?

If you're one of those people that's concerned about more apartment buildings coming to the Gordon corridor, then this month's planning meeting is for you because there's not just one, but two such developments on the docket!

GUELPH POLITICAST #115 - The Vital Signs Report

What does our community look like? If you're asked that question, then you surely think of the very literal picture of Guelph in your head, probably Downtown Guelph and the various landmarks of our city core. But less literally, what does our city look like? What kind of people live here? How many live here? What do they do? And are they happy and healthy in Guelph and Wellington County?

Committee of the Whole Post-view: What Happened at the March 5 Meeting?

It was a packed meeting of presentations and updates for smaller than ordinary Committee-of-the-Whole meeting. You can revisit the Guelph Politico preview of the meeting here, and you can follow the complete live blog here.

LIVE BLOG: Committee of the Whole for March 5, 2018

You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of tonight's council meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow the tweets below.

Province of Ontario Makes Another Deal with Nestle, Not Water Related

The word Nestlé is the source of much controversy in our area, but one can't deny that there are a number of people in and around Guelph, and across the province, that owe their livelihood to Nestlé. And so we're reminded of this again today with the Government of Ontario's announcement that they are partnering with Nestlé to support new jobs, and to keep old ones, up the road in London, Ontario.

3 Things from the 75 Dublin Street Meeting

Tuesday's meeting at City Council about the new old proposed development of 75 Dublin Street North left almost everyone involved with a sense of deja vu, but it also likely left observers with a few lingering questions. Let's consider the big three...