Open Sources Guelph #358 - December 30, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we will leave behind a year that introduced us to this guy, the Q Shaman, who broke into the U.S. Capitol with a few thousand of his friends, and then complained about not getting served organic food while in prison post-break-in. The Q Shaman was the mascot for an otherwise terrible 52 weeks of high-octane political and pandemic drama. As usual, we end the year with some awards.

This Thursday, December 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Worst Politician of 2021. Sadly, the number of candidates for this category were overwhelming this year. Sadly, we don't have Donald Trump to kick around anymore, but he's left an awful lot of bad actors in his wake to take up the cause. But don't think we're any better up here in Canada, because we've got a lot of duds on this side of the border too. From pandemic inaction to bad messaging, who is the worst of the worst in 2021?

Good News Story of the Year. You may be surprised to learn that there was good news in 2021. There were some diamonds in the rough, even though that roughness was very extra this year, but we did the hard work to dig deep and find that good news we so desperately need. For the most part, it's about people. The ones whose hard work and perseverance gave us hope, and reminded us that we can still do great things.

Dumpster Fire of the Year. Like the Worst Politician of the Year, this category offered an embarrassment of riches, emphasis on the "embarrassment." From the deluge of anti-lockdown/ant-mask/anti-COVID political action, to an election that no one wanted and fewer seemed to care about, to that mess in the U.S. Capitol on January 6 that now half the country wants ignore. We're going to need a bigger dumpster!

Best Politician of 2021. Yes, the arc of the universe bent towards awfulness this year, but all that darkness did make the few candidates that shine appear brighter in comparison. As usual, we will end the year end awards show by highlighting the ones who are doing good works, and usually not making a lot of noise about it, but as we enter 2022, we will note again for the record that "Politician" is not always a four-letter word.

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