Guelph Public Library

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A long time ago, a library was little more than a repository of books and a reading room. We could sit and read anything from a newly released novel to an old but unforgotten classic. We could read out of town newspapers and thumb through current issues of popular magazines. Or, we could borrow a book  and bring it home to read. A library became known as the university of the working class. As Daniel Quinn wrote in his novel Ishmail, “there is no secret knowledge; no one knows anything that can’t be found on a shelf in the public library.” Now they have evolved.Read More →

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A couple of days ago, I went on Facebook and posted a photograph of Federal Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer posing with Ontario premier Doug Ford. There’s a third politician who would have been right at home in this photo op. Guelph’s mayor, Cam Guthrie, would fill out this unholy trinity of hypocritical politicians. Last February, Guthrie made his annual state of the city speech to the Chamber of Commerce. He threw a few nice words in the general direction of the Public Library: “The (capital) forecast …suggests the new main library on Baker Street start in 2021. This will be a major redevelopment projectRead More →

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(22 April 2018) – I am pretty old, but Ray Ferraro has to be even older, or close to it. Call me an ageist if you must, but if you’re presenting yourself as a Party of renewal and change, you don’t put up a candidate who’s older than dirt. You especially don’t do it with a candidate whose political career is marked by failure. Failures of judgement and failure at the ballot box. In all his 70-odd years, Ferraro spent 3 as an elected politician. He was elected councillor for ward 2 in the Kate Quarrie sweep of 2003. That term of Council was suchRead More →

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Remarks to the Guelph City Council special meeting on the new main library, 13 February 2018. Thank you, Mayor Guthrie and Councillors and staff for the recommendation to endorse the New Main Library Business Case as developed by KPMG and adopted last month by the Guelph Public Library Board. It is very encouraging to see this level of support at this juncture. I hope we are still in this position after the election in October Sometimes it seems like whenever there is a change in city council, or in the upper echelons of city management, or even in the assignment of staff to the BakerRead More →