Open Sources Guelph #457 - January 4, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we start 2024 by looking back at 2023. It's that time again for our annual political awards show, and for nearly 10 years we've given out the hardware in some very specific categories that capture all the best and the worst of a given year, and as usual there might be more of one than the other. You know what? Let's keep hope alive because we're now in our tenth year of doing this and we're still going strong!

This Thursday, January 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Worst Politician of 2023. Every year, the number of nominees for this category far exceeds the number of slots available, and this past year was an incredibly good year for politicians being bad and behaving worse. A banner year you might say. So as we kick off this first show of 2024, we will look back at the last year and see who went from bad to worst, maybe it was the prime minister of a country at war, or maybe it was the prime minister of our own country.

Good News Story of the Year. Good news? In 2023?! We make that joke every year, but there's usually some small to medium-sized bit of hope for us all to cling to as we enter the new year, and another slate of new and old challenges. In terms of good news in the last 365 days, we might look at how direct action by ordinary people can still change things for the better, or we might look at a local election up the road where they changed the game.

Dumpster Fire of the Year. Everyone's favourite category to feel completely deflated by, and if you were looking for a good dumpster fire then you had the pick of the litter in 2023! You can go with the ongoing rise of the misinformation space including the complete perversion of a certain social media site, or you can go with the literal fire that affected many massive portions of our country. Get the marshmallows ready...

Best Politician of 2023. Last, but certainly not least, we end the show with another chance at hope. As always, if there's a Worst Politician of the Year then there must also be a Best Politician of the Year, and 2023 was no exception. So who does this award go to? Toronto's new "loony lefty" mayor? The first Indigenous premier of a Canadian province? Perhaps someone more local, or the head of a major North American trade union? Stay till the end and find out!

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