Open Sources Guelph - June 8, 2017

This week on Open Sources Guelph we go around the world! Not literally, of course, and mostly in North America and the U.K., but what we're saying is that there are world wide implications. From someone that might be the Prime Minister of Canada if he can get his party's leadership, to a contest to determine who the leader of the United Kingdom will be, to a guy once called the "Leader of the Free World" but seems not even remotely interested in being a leader in his own house. Politics, elections, the environment and terror are all on the docket for this week's show. 

This Thursday, June 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

1) Peter Can! The answer to the question: Who can best lead the New Democratic Party into the next election depending on who you ask. New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian came through Guelph last weekend looking to tap into that same progressive activist spirit that colleagues and fellow leadership candidates Charlie Angus and Niki Ashton have already tapped. We talked to Julian about his ambitious plan to turn grassroots groups and social movements into the base of the NDP, why the media's drumming up of a false narrative about the divide in the party, and how New Democrats have to find a way to remind Canadians they're the real progressive choice.

2) The Wrath of Khan. A terrorist attack in London Saturday that killed seven and injured nearly 50 became the third such attack in Great Britain in almost the same number of months, and on the eve of a fundraising concert to support the victims of the Manchester suicide bomber at an Arianna Grande show. Englanders approached the matter with their renowned "keep calm and carry on" stoicism, but on the other side of the ocean, the U.S. President seemed lose what little was left of his sanity. We'll talk about the wave of terrorism that's been affecting Britain, and how it might affect the outcome of Thursday's election across the United Kingdom. Speaking of which...

3) May's Day. After surprising everyone with a national election call that was a few years early, Theresa May will find out if she can get the broad support she needs to pursue tough Brexit negotiations sometime after our show's over Thursday night. May bet all her chips on Jeremy Corbyn not being able to mount a strong contest for the residency of Downing Street, but Corbyn's been turning out big crowds at his campaign rallies, and he has some old timey Labour members sweating that the electoral fate of the party is now completely tied to Corbyn in what was supposed to be his last hurrah. John Atkin, a former editor at the BBC, will join us to talk about the campaign and what we can anticipate when the returns come in.

4) Climate Discord. President Donald Trump seemed to put the nail in the coffin of both the planet, and on American leadership last week when he announced that the U.S. was leaving the Paris Climate Change Accord and throwing his lot in with Nicaragua, who think the deal was too weak, and Syria, who've got *ahem* bigger concerns. But something interesting happened. The world turned around and decided that they didn't need the U.S., or at least federal U.S. leadership. A dozen state governors and the mayors of 150 American cities have said they'll commit to the accord on their own. Can America, and the world, pursue a carbon neutral future without the support and funding of the federal government?

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