Nominations for the 2026 municipal election close this Friday, and you know what that means: Things get serious! With the finalized list of candidates for mayor, city council, and all the school boards in place you will start to see the campaign really begin and that means signs, and that also means press coverage. Are you ready to hear from the candidates, because you will hear from two today!

This interview, and the ones that will follow in the coming weeks, are part of Guelph Politico’s municipal election coverage. These interviews will help you get to know the candidates, while the upcoming questionnaires will tell you what they think about the issues. With this election, one thing is clear: more than half of city council is going to turn over this November, including the mayor, so to make the best-informed decision you possibly can, Guelph Politico is going to do its part.

On this week’s podcast, we will talk to a candidate who may be familiar to regular listeners of the show. We’re going to have a conversation with Troy Bridgeman, who’s running in Ward 2 and after years covering Guelph as a multimedia journalist now wants to make the news as a city councillor. He will talk about his work covering homelessness issues in Guelph and what he’s learned, plus how he wants to look at how he can use local power to focus on the big issues, and how we can have less partisanship at city all.

Let’s get to know one of the council candidates on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

To learn more about important election dates, and to see the list of candidates running so far in all the races, go to the City of Guelph website here. You can watch the videos of these and other interviews on the Guelph Politico YouTube channel @PoliticoOnVideo, and stay tuned to check out candidate questionnaires, which will start getting posted on Labour Day weekend.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

In 2006, there was a lot of momentum on tackling the climate crisis: Elizabeth May won the leadership promising to make electoral gains, An Inconvenient Truth was a critical and commercial movie hit, and even The Guardian noted it was “the year the world woke up” to the climate action, and then… Well, progress stalled. Now, 20 years later, the Greens are looking for a leader again, but in this political climate can the Greens still make gains?

After 13 years as leader, May announced her retirement in 2019, and the next year, after eight rounds of voting, Toronto lawyer Annamie Paul took over. Without re-litigating what happened next, let’s just say that there was a lot of internal strife in the party, and Paul quit. May returned to the leadership in 2021, and then tried a co-leadership arrangement with Jonathan Pedneault, but that too hit a snag when Pedneault finished fifth in Outremont in 2025.

But Pedneault wasn’t the only one to have a disappointing election night in 2025. Up the road in Kitchener Centre, Mike Morrice lost re-election as MP by a startlingly slim 375 votes. Morrice decided that he was too close to give up and pledged to run again in the next federal election but then he decided to take on a new opportunity: running for leader. Whether its with Morrice in the head office or not, can the Green Party regain their lost momentum?

Mike Morrice will join us this edition of the podcast to talk about the hard lessons learned from his election loss, and why he wants to be the leader of the Green Party beyond slogans. He will also talk about how the Greens won and lost confidence over the last 20 years, how the time may be ripe for a resurgence and how politicians can overcome voter cynicism to believe that change is possible. And finally, he will discuss why he will remain bound to the Kitchener area if ends up becoming party leader.

So let’s talk about what it takes to lead a federal party on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

You can follow Morrice on Instagram, check out his Kitchener Centre campaign website here, and you can learn more about his bid to lead the Green Party here. The Green Party leadership campaign is now underway, and you learn about Morrice and the other candidate Nira Dookeran and get important dates at the Green Party of Canada website. The new Green leader will be announced after the close of voting on November 14.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Photo courtesy of Facebook/Morrice for Kitchener Centre.

This is a big year for Guelph. Our downtown landscape is changing, we have an election in the fall that will usher in a new mayor and council, and then we will mark the city’s 200th birthday in the spring. Two centuries ago, it all began with one man from Scotland cutting down a tree near what we now call the Eramosa River, but how much about John Galt do we actually know? Well, as you will recall, one local academic knows a lot…

A lot of assumptions have been made about Galt, and the popular wisdom for years was that he was a failure as the head of the Canada Company, yet the city he created survives and thrives 200 years later. But what about Galt as a colonizer? It may surprise you to learn that Galt, ever the iconoclast, had some unusual ideas for how settlers and Indigenous people should get along as equals, and it was among the reasons why he was sent back to Scotland two years after founding Guelph.

This week, we’re joined by someone who might know Galt better than anyone (in the 21st century). Gil Stelter, a professor emeritus from the history department at the University of Guelph, has dedicated his life’s studious endeavours to the man who’s name is on the proverbial patent for Guelph. In his career, Stelter has amassed quite a number of insight into the man, his career as a businessman and author, and what his intentions were for Guelph, some of which actually came to pass.

Revisiting an interview from the podcast in August 2023, Stelter gives us a breakdown on who John Galt was, and his notoriety beyond the borders of Guelph. He will also talk about what Galt’s written works tell us about his thinking, how his relationship with John Brant informed his thinking when settling Guelph, and what Galt might think of Guelph now nearly 200 years later. Also, he will talk about how Galt might have been right at home among the celebrity businessmen of modern day.

So let’s talk again about the John Galt you don’t know on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

Learning the basics about the life of John Galt is relatively easy, but if you want to follow up on this particular discussion, you can consult Galt’s written works, including The Apostate or Atlantis Destroyed, which you can buy through Vocamus Press. You can also watch Stelter’s presentation to the Guelph Historical Society on Rogers’ YouTube channel.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Guelph City Council is now on summer break, a long break and then just a few more meetings before the municipal election campaign can really get underway. Perhaps you can’t handle anymore council talk, maybe you just want to be free to think about getting an ice cream at the Boathouse, or plan to visit all your favourite vendors at Ribfest, but after this you will be free… The recap of May, June and July’s council meetings!

A lot of big stuff came down in the last few months. Remember the debate over the McQuillan’s Bridge and whether the City should get a newer, cheaper bridge? Of course that wasn’t the only debate involving trails, which was a recurring theme with a lot of planning discussions. And speaking of planning, there was also a big debate about eight hectates of the Niska lands, a debate that did not turn out the way people hoped. And on the topic of hopes, how is the City of Guelph doing with achieving the goals of the strategic plan?

Let’s find out as we recap the spring and summer events at council on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!

There are two more council meetings before the election, and they’re both in September. First the planning meeting will take place on Wednesday September 9 and that agenda will drop on the City of Guelph website on Thursday August 27. Stay on top of council coverage every week by following @adamadonaldson on Blue Sky and by subscribing to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter. The Thursday edition is the recap of that week’s council meeting.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

It seemed to pass by without much commentary earlier this year, but January 29 marked the tenth anniversary of the last edition of the Guelph Mercury. Recently, with the closure of 570 News in Kitchener, a discussion about the shrinking state of local news is timely again, and as we head into municipal election season, shouldn’t it be more top of mind as we get ready to elect a new mayor and council?

Two weeks ago, Rogers Sports & Media announced that they were cutting 230 jobs and closing six radio stations across Canada, including 570 News in Kitchener. It’s kind of a big hit to the Waterloo Region eco-system because The Mike Farwell Show was a fairly popular platform to discuss local issues, and 570 was the radio broadcast home for the Kitchener Rangers. An important community hub was zapped just like *that* on a random Tuesday!

And on top of that, these cuts come at the worst possible time as every Ontario municipality enters election season this fall. So in the wake of these recent cuts, and in anticipation of the labour intensive work coming this fall, we tap into the experience and expertise of the Ink-Stained Wretches, a grassroots advocacy group dedicated to building a culture of appreciation for quality journalism in aid of democracy. How can we know who we’re voting for without a robust local media eco-system?

Mirko Petricevic. the chief “Ink-stigator” of Ink-Stained Wretches, joins us today on this edition of the pod as we talk about why the closure of 570 News came as such a big blow, and why it continues to be so hard to make the erosion of local news a community issue. He will also talk about walking the fine line between mutual interest and accountability, why local media still has an advantage in securing people’s trust, and why we need a “buy local” campaign for our community news outlets.

So let’s talk again about the state of local news on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

You can learn more about Ink-Stained Wretches at their website, or you can follow them on Facebook and Blue Sky. For some more conversation about the state of local media, especially in Waterloo Region, you can check out a panel discussion that was hosted at the Ink-Stained Wretches Journalism Film Festival, which took place earlier this spring, at Midtown Radio here.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, this week’s episode of the Guelph Politicast is a combination of two interviews from recent editions of Open Sources Guelph. Housing remains a big issue in this city, as we saw as recently as last night’s council meeting, but housing is an Ontario-wide issue too so for this episode of the pod we will open our gaze to areas beyond our borders.

Two times now, Waterloo Region has tried to evict a homeless encampment on the site of proposed transit hub project in Kitchener, and twice an Ontario court has upheld the Charter rights of the people living there. Now, the Region and the Ontario government are trying to take things to the Court of Appeals, but will they have any greater success there? In part one, Waterloo Region Community Legal Services executive director Ashley Schuitema, who represents the residents, will tell us why she’s holding all the cards.

For years, we’ve been waiting for all levels of government to make substantial progress on getting more affordable homes built, but some advocates are now wondering if maybe working within the present system is worth their while. In part 2 we will be joined by Matt Whitfield and Gaetan Heroux, organizers of the People’s Assembly for Housing Justice, who tell us why fighting Toronto’s housing crisis may not involve getting involved in the local election this fall.

So let’s look at some housing issues beyond the immediate Guelph area on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

You can learn more about the Waterloo Region Community Legal Services, including updates about the fight for the Kitchener encampment on their website. You can learn more about the Parkdale Housing Justine Network on Instagram and you can learn about the Toronto Tenant Union at their website. If you would like to learn more about Guelph’s own nascent tenant union will be taking part in Breezy Breakfast this Thursday at 8 am at Uptown Grill.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Sometimes it seems like municipal politics is an older person’s game. Look around at the faces of Guelph City Council, or even Wellington County Council, and you see a lot of wrinkles and a lot of grey hairs. Now, we love our elders, and everyone should be welcome to serve in municipal governance, but as we approach the end of this term of Guelph city council, we will talk to its two youngest members about going where few people their age have gone before.

This is the last of three episodes dedicated to the first-term councillors. A lot can change in a term, and for Councillors Carly Klassen and Ken Yee Chew there have been some pretty big personal changes to match the ones they experienced on the job; Chew became a married man while Klassen became a first-time mom. With so many things that are so important personally, it doesn’t leave much room for the rapidly changing pace of municipal business.

On that account, this last term probably broke speed records. The Ontario government introduced changes to municipal oversite, funding and planning pretty much every six months, and there’s also been the increasing centralization of power. Despite the challenges they’ve encountered, and the changes in their personal lives, Klassen and Chew have both decided to re-up for the next term of council, and with a slate of young people eager to join them, what can Klassen and Chew teach us based on their experiences?

Carly Klassen and Ken Yee Chew join us on this edition of the podcast to talk about the things they wish they knew before they ran for office, the learning curve (especially with all the changes mandated by the provincial government), and the ways their personal lives have changed in the last four years. They will also discuss how they’ve balanced their commitments, what it means to be representative of young people on council, and the challenges in chasing their own agendas.

So let’s talk about what the young ones have learned on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

Council business continues, at least until the end of the month, and you can find the agendas on the City of Guelph’s “City Government” page here, and you can see all the ongoing coverage here on Guelph Politico. The last day to file nominations for this fall’s municipal elections is Friday August 21 when the campaign begins in earnest, and Election Day itself is Monday October 26. Learn more about who’s running and important dates here.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

If you’re listening to this on Wednesday, then it’s Canada Day, and you might expect that we would dig into something of national importance but with a Guelph edge. Instead, we’re going to go ultra local. There’s a neighbourhood in the City’s south end that has concerns about traffic that will be created from over 200 new units that have been long in development. At the same time, one Guelphite is saying that print is not dead!

First, in the Hart Village area east of Rickson Road in Guelph’s south end, signs have popped up along Carrington Drive, Rodgers Road, and Ryder Avenue, all trying to raise awareness about two new projects coming to the top of the hill on Lovett Lane and their possible impacts on traffic flow in the area. Some might call them NIMBY, but in an election year do these residents have the political capital to use the occasion for their issue?

Second, you may have noticed a new print media outlet around town at some of your favourite coffee shops and stores, something we used to call an alt-weekly. It’s been a good 15 years since Echo Weekly stopped publishing, but now Net Weekly hopes to fill the void by “trying to help you stay off your phone just a little bit more”. Can an alt-weekly still be a Bible for Guelph arts culture, even if its not really online and printed on regular paper?

David Deacon of the neighbourhood group Plan the Right Access will join us in part one to tell us about all the questions on Lovett Lane, the lack of answers from city hall, and why he and his neighbours are actually excited about the project. In part two, Michael K. Newton, the founder of Net Weekly, will talk about why Guelph has been missing an alt-weekly, how he’s building an audience, and why printed paper is the best way to build it!

So let’s get local this Canada Day on the Guelph Politicast!

You can learn more about the effort to send the Lovett Lane development back to council at their website or by visiting them on Instagram. Net Weekly releases a new edition every Thursday at locations around Guelph including The Beat Goes On, Red Brick Cafe, The Dragon, and more, plus you can find back issues here. If you have a pitch or are interested in advertising, you can send Newton an email at netweeklyguelph [at] gmail.com.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Does this one feel a little slow? There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of passion in the community for a variety of issues from affordability to housing development in this election, and there are a lot of new faces eager to take the reins around the council horseshoe, but a little over halfway through the nomination process, do the races this fall feel exciting, especially the open mayor’s race? Is there change in the air? Are people paying attention?

Last week, there was finally a break in the mayor’s race. Ward 6 Councillor Ken Yee Chew submitted his name to become the next Mayor of Guelph and thus presented a challenge to his colleague, Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Caron. Now technically, there are four people in the race, but if this comes down to past council experience, for now, this is Caron versus Chew to lead Guelph into its post-Guthrie years.

But that’s just the mayor’s race. If you look at the list of competitors in the six ward races, some of them are busier than others, especially Ward 1, which usually attracts a large variety of candidates in every election. There’s still a question mark around two seats, one in Ward 4 and another in Ward 5; Councillors Christine Billings and Cathy Downer have yet to announce their intentions. And what about the school board races? Only four people have signed up across the four different school boards, why is that?

To break down some of these questions, and more, we will be joined by Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz. We will talk about whether this is a slow start to an election, why candidates need to have those social media accounts ready, and why no candidate can rest on social media alone. We will also talk about the top issues being discussed on the campaign trail, why candidates need to be ready to talk about cuts if they’re running against high taxes, and we will make a pit stop to talk about Mississauga politics.

So let’s talk about the election, two months down four to go, on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

You can see the full list of candidates running in all the races here. You can listen to Scotty and I talk every week, Thursday at 5 pm, on Open Sources Guelph, which airs on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca. We will be ramping up our election coverage there later this summer, and in the meantime, you can stay up to date on election stuff on Guelph Politico and by subscribing to the Tip Sheet newsletter.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

One of the big initiatives in this term of council, especially as we emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, was the effort to promote Guelph as a tourist destination. There are two major projects now in the pipeline that would do a lot to brandish Guelph as regional, provincial and nation destination, but as we look to the next term of council, will there be the political capacity to help make these projects a reality?

We’ve talked about both of these projects in previous episodes of the pod. Royal City Science is an effort to build a science centre in Guelph, and last fall they released their feasibility study, which laid out the plan for a 100,000 square foot facility to be built in three phases and will include exhibition halls, education spaces, a planetarium and an IMAX theatre. (That would be a first for this area by the way.)

When it comes to the National Urban Park, we know that infrastructure isn’t the problem because the land is already there, and while Guelph City Council has endorsed the idea, three very important people have held back: The Mayor, our Member of Provincial Parliament, and our Members of Parliament. In the meantime though, there’s a massive community investment in the project and they’re ready to go! So what’s happening now with both of these projects?

Joanne O’Meara, one of the organizers of Royal City Science, and P. Brian Skerrett, a heritage advocate and creator of Urban Park Guelph, will join us on this edition of the pod to talk about the latest with these initiatives. O’Meara will talk about the search for a site to build the science centre and whether the drama around the Ontario Science Centre is a drain on this project, and then we will then talk to Skerrett about community versus political support and getting ready to make an updated pitch to Parks Canada.

So let’s talk about Guelph as a city of attractions on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

To learn more about Royal City Science at their website, or follow them on Instagram. The monthly Science on Top events at Royal City Brewing will return this fall. You can also learn more about the effort to turn the OR Lands into a National Urban Park their website, on Facebook. The Yorklands Green Hub regularly hosts events on the property, and you can find more information about what’s coming up here, and learn more about other Guelph tourism events here.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.