Open Sources Guelph - September 24, 2020

This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a jam-packed news week, and there's a lot of ground to cover. In Ottawa, the government is trying to avoid an election, but the truth is that everybody wants to avoid an election because the number of COVID cases are going up at alarming rates again. And speaking of elections, a new wrench was thrown into the U.S. Election, and since that looks like its so much fun, the Premier of B.C. seems to have decided he'd like to see an election too.

This Thursday, September 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

The Swing Speech. Hoping that he can reset the agenda and his government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in August and set the stage for Wednesday's Speech from the Throne. Everyone agrees that no one wants an election, and why would you when two out of five major party leaders have the virus, but what can Trudeau say to divert a potential election, and what can the Liberals do to win back the public trust after the WE scandal?

The New Wave. Fall is here, and predictably COVID-19 has come roaring back with a vengeance with new cases being diagnosed daily at a rate not seen since the spring. Forget about the Americans because we've got problems here at home; long lines at COVID assessment clinics, big gatherings with hundreds of people at parking lots, and didn't the Ontario government just recently release their plan for fighting the fall wave? How concerned should we be right now?

RBG. The passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has prompted people to pay tribute to her decades of service on the court, and her tireless work to achieve gender equality. At the same time though, her passing has opened a new front in the culture wars with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump looking to ram through a replacement before Ginsburg's even been buried. What effect will the court fight have on the election?

Horgan's Run. Two weeks ago, Blaine Higgs led his Progressive Conservatives to a majority government in New Brunswick built mainly on his positive approval ratings in responding to the pandemic. It seems that other provincial leaders with minority governments have learned that lesson, and B.C.'s NDP Premier John Horgan has called an election for October 24. What about the confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party? How craven is this move by Horgan?

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