Open Sources Guelph - May 3, 2018

It's all a waiting game on this week's Open Sources Guelph. That writ is going to drop any minute now and we're going to be in full-blown provincial election mode, but until then we're going to have to stay tuned and see what everyone else is up to while they're waiting. Maybe they can look at issues of poverty. We're certainly going to do that, and we're going to talk about the future of the most famous face on Ontario's public broadcaster. All that, plus a special guest in terms of a provincial party leader that's looking for an upset. (And his initials are not M.S.)

This Thursday, May 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

1) At Writ's End. Premier Kathleen Wynne and her ministers are doing a victory lap of 15 years of Liberal government achievements. NDP leader Andrea Horwath released the party's full platform and got her candidates all ready to run last weekend. Green leader Mike Schreiner has been doing a round of media, and getting his Guelph team ready to run. PC leader Doug Ford, meanwhile, has said that he wants to open the Green Belt to housing construction. Okay. It's all just a waiting game anyway until the writ finally drops, but we'll discuss the latest developments.

2) Poorer Still. Recent Statistics Canada research shows that poverty is getting better in all Canadian provinces save for Ontario and Prince Edward Island. Some people, like Matthew Lau in the Financial Post, are putting the blame on the minimum wage increase in Ontario (in spite of the fact that the numbers predate the increase initiated on January 1). Meanwhile, a Brookings Institute study shows that even though Canada is prospering, the gulf of inequality is actually increasing. As we head into an election, how do we make poverty an issue, and how do we address the issues of inequality in a non-partisan way?

3) Jay Talking. Since we're talking about elections, it's worth remember that there are more than just the four main parties, and of the so-called fringe parties, one may carry particular weight and expectation in this coming provincial race. The Alliance Party of Ontario is looking to attract conservatives upset at the less-than-democratic actions of both Patrick Brown and Doug Ford, and they're hoping that they can get right-leaning Ontarians to stand on principle as opposed to just the desire to beat Kathleen Wynne. Alliance Party leader Jay Tysick will join us to talk about his party, their platform, and why there's more than one option this election for PC voters.

4) Not Paikin Any Trouble. You may recall that a few months ago, former Toronto mayoral candidate and Women's Post publisher Sarah Thomson alleged that she had been sexually harassed by TVO host Steve Paikin, and that he had proposed trading sexual favours for appearances on The Agenda. An independent investigation has returned findings that Paikin was not in the wrong, or at the very least there's no hard evidence proving that Paikin tried to be lecherous to Thompson. So now what? Has Paikin emerged untarnished from all this? Has Thomson become unfairly vilified? Where does #MeToo go from here?

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