GUELPH POLITICAST #37 - Jennifer Haines, Owner of the Dragon

In 1998, the public's idea of comic book movies were the horrid Batman films by Joel Schumacher, their idea of superhero TV shows was Saturday morning cartoons, and the comic book industry itself nearly went bust after a sales bubble in the early 90s. (Think the Dot-com crash or the 2008 subprime mortgage implosion, but with comics.) It was in that year, a classics graduate from the University of Guelph decided to go into business selling comics, and despite the odds, Jennifer Haines turned her shop into a made-in-Guelph success story.

Is Guelph's Shopping Nightmare Finally Over?

Costco's Guelph store opened last Friday after much fanfare and extended wait. So what? I grant Costco the compliment that as a business, they're definitely more forward thinking in terms of wage and working conditions for employees, and being one of the rare private businesses that proactively compensates their employees well while being successful and proving that those things are not mutually exclusive. I welcome Costco as a good employer that offers Guelphites well-paying jobs, but what I don't welcome is the borderline religious fervor that accompanied another store opening in the City of Guelph.