Old Grey Mayors

Former Waterloo city councillor Angela Vieth joins Rob on the podcast to hear what inspired her to run for office, what is was like to win, and her advocacy for removing fluoride from the city's drinking water in 2010.

Welcome to another episode of Old Grey Mayors with your host Rob Deutschmann. In this episode, we have a very special guest, Cheryl Gordijk, who will be sharing her inspiring story of love, adventure, and public service. Cheryl takes us on a captivating journey as she recounts how she met her husband when he visited Canada, and how their love story led her across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom. Cheryl's journey took her back to Canada, where she found her passion for serving her community. She delves into her decision to run for council in Wilmot Township and the obstacles she overcame during her campaign and time in office. Throughout the episode, Cheryl reflects on her accomplishments during her time on council and the initiatives she is most proud of. She shares anecdotes and lessons learned, providing valuable insights into the world of local governance and the importance of community involvement. Join us as Cheryl Gordijk shares her remarkable story of love, adventure, and public service, and inspires us with her determination, resilience, and dedication to making a difference in her community. This is an episode you won't want to miss!

On this episode of Old Grey Mayors, Rob welcomes community volunteer extraordinaire Angie Hallman. From spray pads to Canada Day celebrations, Angie can be relied upon to help out her community in many ways. Rob first met Angie when they were on the CityNews Kitchener Friday Four segment. In 2018, Angie decided to take the plunge and ran to become a councillor for Wimot Township. She was one of the triumvirate of women who balanced out the previous male-dominated council. Along with her two fellow councillors, the three were the first women elected in over 40 years to Wilmot Council. She served for one term and lost in her reelection bid in 2022. Angie joins Rob to share with us her experiences as a community volunteer and councillor.

In this episode, Rob is joined by former Kitchener city councillor Zyg Janecki. Zyg worked in planning for the City of Kitchener for 30 years before moving to private practice. In 2006, he offered his experience skills and expertise to the citizens of Kitchener, but narrowly lost that election. In 2010, he ran again and was successful and was elected a councillor for Ward 8 in Kitchener. He was reelected in 2014, but lost his reelection bid in 2018. 

Jean Haalboom returns to the podcast for the third time to talk with Rob about her time in office, the importance of protecting geographical heritage, and more.

Our latest episode features Rob telling the tale of bringing a new supermarket to Ayr—from the challenges of selecting a site to dealing with developers and grocery chains with conflicting ideas on what the community needed.

In the final part of the ION light rail transit trilogy, Mike Murray sits down with Rob to talk about construction challenges — from finding hidden concrete and corduroy roads underground to manufacturing delays for the trains themselves. Part 1 - No small tasks with Mike Murray Part 2 - Moving ION forward with Mike Murray

Former Region of Waterloo CAO Mike Murray is back to continue the story of bringing the region's ION light rail transit system to life.

Greg Durocher is a guy that Rob says he could chat with for hours. On this episode of the podcast, Greg shares stories from his time on the City of Cambridge council in the 1990s with insight and ideas for budding and current councillors.

Yvonne Fernandes, former councillor for the Doon Pioneer Park Ward in Kitchener from 2010 to 2018, joins Rob for an interesting discussion about the dynamic around the horseshoe and the politics within the politics.

Rob sits down with former Waterloo councillor Melissa Durrell to talk about her journey from covering local news to running for local office.

Karen Coviello was a municipal councillor in Waterloo from 2006 to 2014. During her time on council, she was a member of the audit committee, a member of the Economic Development Advisory Committee, and Chair of the Finance and Strategic Planning committee for four years. She was also a committee member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, sat on the board of directors for Waterloo North Hydro was a board member with the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, was a board member of St. Mary's General Hospital, and was a committee member of the Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation. Because she didn't have enough to do, she was also a member of the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network. She was a professor in the School of Business at Conestoga College. She was treasurer and chairperson at Community Justice Initiatives. She had a regular column in the Waterloo Chronicle for a number of years, and among other endeavors, she co-chaired a group called Real Men Can Cook Waterloo. With all that, it's safe to say that her most cherished community involvement is with the Waterloo Public Library, where she had a long term association including as Chair of the Board of Trustees. She is currently a vice president at Habitat for Humanity Canada and we're excited to have her on the podcast to share her more about her journey in municipal politics.

It's an oddly forgotten part of Waterloo Region history. In 1989, there was a discovery of contaminants in the aquifers under the town of Elmira. Those contaminants were linked to a plant that was then Uniroyal Chemical. The contaminant was identified as the carcinogenic NDMA (nitrosodimethylamine) and it was in the town's only supply of drinking water. Gerry Thompson joins Rob for an insightful conversation on what happened when the contamination was found and what happened next.

We've got Mike Murray back for the last episode of season 2. Mike came to the Region of Waterloo from private business in 1992. After having worked alongside municipalities, and realizing that he wanted to be one of those guys involved in making significant decisions impacting the community, he jumped right into the thick of it initially as the manager of engineering, planning, and water resource protection. He would go on to become the Chief Administrative Officer in 2004 and stayed in that position until 2020. During that time, he worked on many matters relevant to the development of the community. Some high profile projects included the region's resource water protection strategy and rural water quality program, creating the Waterloo Region Tourism Marketing Corporation and the Economic Development Corporation.  No small tasks considering you need to convince seven municipalities to come on board.  He shares his insights on the Syrian refugee resettlement program, the region's consumption and treatment facility, and, of course, the granddaddy of them all — the region's rapid transit system.

Rob welcomes Gerry Thompson back to the podcast. Gerry has a history of service in Waterloo Region that could fill many podcasts. He came to the Region to work as a transportation planner in 1973 and stayed with the Region of Waterloo in various management positions until 2004. The latter part of his time with the region was as the CAO, the chief administrative officer from 1991 until 2004, the big boss. He was here during the very early days of the Region, watching it grow to the dynamic and progressive municipal institution it's become today. During his time, he was involved in some of the biggest issues facing our region that included the first ever Regional Official Plan and the massive servicing project for the Cambridge Toyota plant in 1985.

This episode, Rob welcomes Bob Williams to the show. While Bob was not an elected politician, he's dealt with a lot of them.  He earned a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Toronto and then was a tenured professor at the University of Waterloo from 1971 to 2006.  His research and teaching interests included municipal government, Ontario politics, and electoral systems. Since his retirement from the University of Waterloo, he has been engaged by more than 35 municipalities to review and develop electoral arrangements. He has served on the Region of Waterloo municipal elections compliance audit committee from 2006 to present. They're the people that, among other things, make sure candidates don't overspend their campaign limits.

Former City of Waterloo Councillor and current CityNews 570 broadcaster Brian Bourke joins us to talk about his time on council.

Bryan Stortz returns to the podcast to talk about his time running the Kitchener This Week newspaper. This is one of our favourite episodes — full of great anecdotes about running a paper, local politics and the media, and more.

Mike Murray joins Rob to share his journey from engineer to Chief Administrative Officer for Waterloo Region.

Bryan returns to the podcast to talk about his time as an alderman for the City of Kitchener and shares his Seven Secrets for electoral success.