GUELPH POLITICAST #404 – 2023: Year in Review

Although this is now technically 2024, we’re going to spend this week’s show having the last word about 2023. We plowed through a lot of news in last week’s clip show, but this week we will bring some much needed analysis: What will 2023 be remembered for? Who were the players? Who failed when it was their turn to play? And what’s going to happen next as we go into 2024?

Much of the year seemed to be focused on one topic in particular, and that’s housing. Whether that was more social housing for the people in greatest need, or the generation of more market units to increase supply, it seemed like no council meeting went by without the issue getting name-checked. Council had two different long meetings about housing this past fall and the only real conclusion they came to was that they don’t have the powers they need to take any real action on the problem. 

But there were the usual politics too even though there were no elections this year. Consider the full court press to get our MPP Mike Schreiner to ditch his green colours and go for red, and speaking of the red team, our member of Parliament decided that he’s not going to run for a fourth time, which opens up a world of possibilities. The new riding of Guelph has an NDP candidate, and at least one member of city council wants to carry the Liberal brand into a fourth decade.

To talk about all this and more, we're joined by Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz for this first show of 2024. Did we really do anything on homelessness this year? Which version of Mayor Cam Guthrie won the year, the friend of Doug Ford or his very loud critic? We will also talk about the post-secondary problems in Guelph in 2023, and the next move for Guelph’s Greens after holding on to their leader and helping to get Aislinn Clancy elected in Kitchener Centre.

So let's analyze the last 12 months in Guelph news on this week's Guelph Politicast!

You can catch Open Sources Guelph in it's regular slot on Thursdays at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!!! You can also see the Top 10 Guelph News stories of 2023 over on the Guelph Politico website. And for next week’s show, we will be recapping the last five months of 2023 in the chambers of Guelph city council!

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