After taking a week off, we have a lot of politics to catch up on with this week's Open Sources Guelph.
First, we'll go to Philly where history was made as the first woman to
win a major party nomination accepted with the trepidation of some in
her party. It was serious stuff, the kind of stuff that make you want to
take a trip to the circus. The Republicans threw one last week in
honour of coronating their 2016 nominee, the orange-coloured ego man.
Hopefully, this is so...
After taking a week off, we have a lot of politics to catch up on with this week's Open Sources Guelph.
First, we'll go to Philly where history was made as the first woman to
win a major party nomination accepted with the trepidation of some in
her party. It was serious stuff, the kind of stuff that make you want to
take a trip to the circus. The Republicans threw one last week in
honour of coronating their 2016 nominee, the orange-coloured ego man.
Hopefully, this is something that will not be repeated next year when
the Federal Conservatives and NDP choose a leader here in Canada.
Speaking of circuses, the Canadian senate is hoping to go back to
relative anonymity now that its members have all been cleared of
criminal charges. It would be a crime to miss this week's episode.
This Thursday, July 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) Fun in Philly.
After the apocalyptic vision of modern America offered by Donald Trump
and the parade of disgruntled GOP politicians and C-list celebrities
called the Republican National Convention, it had to be smooth sailing
for the Dems right? Not so fast... Even before Wikileaks info-dumped
emails revealing that the DNC was in the tank for Hillary Clinton, and
way before it was revealed that Russian hackers may have been behind it,
discord was in the air. The so-called "Bernie Bros" weren't prepared to
cede the race to Secretary Clinton even though things have lined up in
her favour, and, you know, it was kind of the point of the convention.
With all the talk about disunity amongst Republicans, is the real party
of disharmony the Democrats?
2) The Carnival in Cleveland.
The Republican National Convention featured a procedural meltdown,
demands to send the Democratic nominee to prison, birtherism,
plagiarism, racism, misogyny, and a moment that saw the presumptive
nominee phone in an interview to Bill O’Reilly as coverage of the major
speeches began at his own convention. And that was just the first night!
The GOP meet up in Cleveland was just as fractious and demented as
predicted, but in the end, everything seemed to come up Trump as the now
anointed Republican Presidential nominee rallied everyone around the
fire of America's ruin and promised that he, and only he, can cancel the
apocalypse. With Trump and his running mate Gov. Mike Pence
experiencing a post convention bump in the polls must we consider the
possibility that - sigh - President Trump might be one stop closer to a
reality?
3) Business as Usual.
It seemed like only yesterday that the names Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallen
and Patrick Brazeau were akin to 'mud' in the Red Chamber of Parliament
Hill, but now free of any legal entanglements, it seems that bygones are
bygones between all the members of the upper house. Just last week,
Brazeau was back at work after being cleared of criminal charges
relating to senate fraud, and Duffy re-hired two prominent staffers who
were embroiled in the cover-up of his alleged misclaimed expenses, and
told the senate we won’t be paying back that last $17,000. So all’s well
that ends well, right? Hugh Segal even says the trio deserve an apology
for their treatment. So what’s going to happen in the Senate now that
everything is back to normal, no one had to accept any consequences, and
nobody seemed to learn any lesson?
4) Oh No They Aren’t!
Last week Tony Clement threw his hat in the ring to be the next leader
of the Federal Conservatives, a road he’s hoed twice before without
success. Still, Clement is probably the most high-profile and
well-established name that has yet to nominate himself for the
Conservative leadership race. Clement joins Michael Chong, Kellie
Leitch, Deepak Obhrai and Maxime Bernier on the ballot, but what of the
big names like Peter MacKay, Lisa Raitt, and, heaven forbid, Kevin
O’Leary? Some are saying
the all-stars are waiting out the inevitable electoral defeat to the
Liberals in 2019 before committing, and if that’s true, will that be the
excuse of some potential NDP leadership candidates? That race still has
only one declared candidate. We’ll update both races.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
