Open Sources Guelph #351 - November 11, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got some very big things to talk about. Obviously, we always have big things to talk about, but this week, we take a trip into realms more ethereal. Is there a real shift underway giving more power to the workers? Is there really a pandemic of wokeness in the discourse right now? Looking locally though, we're going to talk about something more tangible, the budget.

This Thursday, November 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

The Living Wage Daylights. There's been a lot written about "Striketober" and "the Great Resignation", but beyond the hype all this points to a potential shift where the power is now with workers. We're seeing that in Ontario with a strike at CAA's southwestern Ontario branches, and the Ford government's approval of an increase to the minimum wage. So are workers finally seeing a shift in their favour or is this a moment in time?

Woke and Dagger. The greatest danger in current western politics is not the slide to authoritarianism, climate change denial, or vaccine hesitancy, it's wokeness. At least, that's how some people see it. While questions about how equality movements may be moving too fast for some people with still old-fashioned thinking, is it really the fault of progressives fighting for social justice that there's a growing right-wing blowback?

The Way Downer. Last week, the City of Guelph released the 2022-2023 budget, the first multi-year budget in the city's history, and a complex document that will struggle to balance the demands of a growing city while being affordable for its people. Questions this big require major expertise, and its hard to find more expertise on this council than Ward 5 Councillor Cathy Downer. She will join us for some more budget talk.

Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.