Archive for 2006 September

Anthony Perl, the Urban Studies Director at Simon Fraser University, is an old family friend who I met 24 years ago when he and Charlie lived at Massey College in the University of Toronto.  At the time, Anthony’s main claim to fame was that he had become the president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers by sending proxy ballots in pre-addressed envelopes to the entire membership, and therefore came into the convention with half the members in his pocket.  His main competitor was the love of his life, who at the time regarded him as childish and in need of much refinement, but was eventually persuaded to marry him.  He is very engaging.

His fascination with trains led him to focus on public transportation policy in his political science studies, while writing travel articles for train magazines.  In promoting trains, he started to research the environmental benefits of rail transportation and came to be concerned simultaneously about oil depletion and global warming.  And from there he moved onto sound urban planning.  A whole career built around trainwatching with his dad as a boy.     Read more »

If you’re interested in starting a blog, but don’t know how to start, the Green Party of Canada has just made it a little easier.  They have a new blogging resource for members at:

http://greenparty.ca/blog

Jim Harris, former GPC leader and one of our Toronto-Danforth members, just wrote to me earlier today (well, actually yesterday now, as the site was down so long it’s now the morning after) to announce the appearance of his blog there, which you can see at:

http://www.greenparty.ca/en/blog/358

Count on Jim to write well. I think his blog should be one to watch for, and I’ve linked our EDA blog to his.

I’ve looked the blog area of the GPC site over and there is room for improvement.  For one thing, there’s no link from the main site.  For another the “new members” listing isn’t a link, and it should be.  But it’s a start and will surely improve.  I’m looking forward to watching it grow.

On Wednesday night, I went to a Post Carbon Toronto meetup, where Professor Danny Harvey made a presentation about how we are going to survive the perils of peak oil.  It’s nice to know that the technology to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels exists.

Now, for those of you whose eyes are glazing over as you read the words “post-carbon” and “peak oil”, let me explain.  Peak oil and post-carbon groups are basically interested in the time following the point where production of oil peaks.  Standard economics predicts that once supply can no longer keep up with demand, demand will be forced to drop through price increases.  It is clearly in the interest of oil and gas companies to keep telling people that they don’t need to prepare for the upcoming scarcity, which is many years away, because that way they can be sure to extract the highest prices once demand is forced to go down.  If, on the other hand, all world governments sensibly addressed climate change with effective conservation and efficiency programs, demand would go down through less painful measures, and fuel prices would remain low as production declined.     Read more »

Yesterday, I was distributing my energy plan at the St. Lawrence Forum before listening to Elizabeth May share her wisdom on global warming, alongside a panel that included Ralph Torrie, a very respected longtime energy expert who has been advising the city, Jose Etcheverry, a climate change researcher for the Suzuki Foundation, and a representative from Environment Canada.  Usually, the St. Lawrence Forum features hearty debates by experts on opposing sides of the issue, but in this case, everyone was on the same side.  The organizers had invited the federal environment minister, Rona Ambrose, to defend Prime Minister Harper’s sabotaging of what few programs existed to combat global warming, but she wisely chose to be unable to make it.

So it was a sobering evening, though Elizabeth was witty as usual, and Ralph Torrie had several dry remarks that caused an eruption of laughter sometime after he delivered them.  Once again, the point was driven home to me that things may be a whole lot worse than we think.     Read more »

Edward Chin is [was, in 2006] running for City Council in Ward 30 (the bottom half of our Toronto-Danforth riding), and looking for help from environmentally-minded residents…

I met Ed Chin through the Toronto Energy Coalition, when he came to a Steering Committee meeting.  He struck me as quiet and knowledgeable, and committed to the idea of reducing harm.  I soon discovered that he had an incredible array of experience, from biochemical research to paralegal to many positions in the theatre industry.  Now retired, he gives a great deal to the community, working in tax clinics, setting up computer centres, teaching ESL, and sitting on the Board of the Ralph Thornton Centre.

Last week, he sat down with me to tell me more about himself. He is a fascinating man.  Born of Chinese parents in Boston, Ed grew up in what he calls “Boston’s Chinese ghetto”, where he was painfully aware of the exclusion suffered by racial minorities.  Ed studied chemistry and math as a young man at Columbia University before spending a year in Germany and Denmark.  He speaks a version of Cantonese, English, German, and some French, some Danish and some Russian that he is learning for fun.  He returned from Germany to register for the Vietnam draft, but was prepared to face military jail if ordered to fight.  Instead, he was assigned to working in biomedical laboratories.  When his service ended, he went on to work at Columbia’s medical school, while simultaneously returning to study molecular biology at the University.  Nearing the end of his studies, he was recruited by the University of Pennsylvania to a teaching position.

The Columbia riots intervened.  Sympathizing with the students who opposed the Vietnam draft, Ed made the difficult decision that he needed to devote his life to helping people.  He spent the next years working as a paralegal focusing on housing for the poor.  He organized rent strikes for people living in substandard housing and offered other legal services.

Eventually, a friend arranged for Ed to get a job as a projectionist, which Ed thought was an easy way to make some money, while still leaving time to do other things.  He ended up spending 20 years in the theatre industry, both in film and on Broadway, working in production, post-production and backstage tech.

He came to Canada in 1980 on a work visa, married a Canadian in 1983, immigrated in 1984 and became a citizen in 1989.  He has one son and one grandson.  As a retiree, he dabbles in many interests.  He sits on the Board of the Ralph Thornton Centre and on 3 committees of the Riverdale Co-op, where he has lived for 13 years.  He enjoys computers, and helped incorporate the GTA Linux Users Group, a public freeware advocacy group.  He is setting up the Computer Learning Centre at Banglatown, a Bangladeshi community centre, and helped them incorporate.  He studied to become a financial investment advisor, and has been in charge of the tax clinics at Woodgreen for 8 years.  He is also a qualified ESL teacher and taught at Woodgreen.

He is the only candidate who opposes the construction of any power plant on the Portlands, and was one of the first signatories of my plan.  He would like, through legislation or incentives, to encourage greater energy efficiency in new construction.  He is particularly annoyed by the inefficiency of all-glass exterior construction.

Ed is interested in reaching out to immigrant communities and addressing their needs for improved access to services and employment.  He feels that our community has become a dumping ground for unwanted development because it has traditionally had the highest new immigrant population in the city.  He feels that new development should be integrated with new communities and planned in consultation with existing residents.