Archive for Fun

Tuesday, 2011 March 29, 7 pm to 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

We meet the last Tuesday of the month. Come by and join us!

Annual Green Awakening Network
& Greening Sacred Spaces Forum
Saturday, March 26, 9 am – noon
Sunday, March 27, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Eglinton St George’s United Church, 35 Lytton Rd

Come and join faith communities from across Toronto and region for a day of inspiration and practical help on March 26. The event is for faith communities wishing to seriously take their commitment to ‘live with integrity’ in creation.     Read more »

Congratulations to all women on this centenary Women’s Day when we celebrate one hundred years of progress for women. I’ve been listening to Peter Gabriel sing his wonderful song Shaking the Tree with Youssou N’Dour in celebration of Women’s Day. Would be even better if it were written by a woman, but it’s hard to complain about men singing in celebration of women’s achievements.

Here is Elizabeth May being her usual eloquent self,      Read more »

The Green Party of Canada calls for an end to smear campaigns and attack ads.  Let’s run an election trying to win hearts and minds on the strength of our own policies and principles.

View their attack ad on attack ads and ask representatives of all parties to stop the negative campaigning.

A clever site called People for Corporate Tax Cuts does a brilliant job of highlighting the impact on Canadians of a corporate tax cut.  Although it’s designed for an Ontario audience, it works well at all levels of government.  Governments only have so much money.  If they cut the corporate tax rate, either they have to increase the tax burden on individuals, or they have to cut services.  This might make sense if we had outrageous corporate tax rates that made it difficult for businesses to compete in a global economy, but that’s not the case.  Corporate tax cuts are just welfare for the rich.

A few years ago, Elizabeth May said that we need to plan cities around the child, instead of around the car.  There’s now a movement around 8-80 cities that calls on cities to be planned with two groups of people in mind – 8 year olds and 80 year olds.  The theory is that if you take care of the young and old, the able-bodied in between will be able to look after themselves.  It’s a compassionate approach to community building with the goal of safe streets, local economies and cohesive neighbourhoods, rather than maximum mobility.  And it’s very much at the heart of what the Green Party is all about.

Mark Kennedy reports that:     Read more »

Happy Family Day 2011 to all.  It’s beautiful and bright, and there are lots of things to do.  My family will be spending the day mostly at home because my son has the chicken pox, but we might get out to a park for a while.

Tuesday, 2011 February 22, 7 pm – 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

We meet the last Tuesday of the month. Come join us!

The Green Party is looking for student volunteers to work near your secondary school in the Toronto-Danforth riding. This fun opportunity can be used toward your required 40 hours of community service.     Read more »

Monday 2011 January 24, 5:30 pm – 9:30 pm
William Doo Auditorium, University of Toronto
45 Willcocks St

Attend a special screening of ‘The Economics of Happiness’, a new documentary film by Helena Norberg-Hodge about the worldwide movement for economic localization.

The film features a chorus of voices calling for systemic economic change, including: Vandana Shiva, David Korten, Michael Shuman, Richard Heinberg, Rob Hopkins, Juliet Schor, Zac Goldsmith, Bill McKibben, and Samdhong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of Tibet’s government in exile. If you can’t attend the launch event, there are other ways to be involved.     Read more »

Monthly Danforth Greens Pub Night
Tuesday, 2011 January 25, 7 pm – 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

We won’t be meeting up in December – but please join us on the last Tuesday in January for our first pub night of 2011!

This morning, a group of 30 Greens from all over the world gathered for breakfast in Cancun.  Most were officeholders in Europe, either in the EU Parliament or in country governments.  But municipal councillor Cathy Oke arrived from Melbourne, Australia, former Santa Monica mayor Mike Feinstein came from the United States, and four Canadian Greens joined in with three Brazilians, including the leader of the Brazilian Greens, Senator Marina Silva, who gathered 20 million votes in the last presidential election, earning 20% of the popular vote, 30% of the urban vote and winning the popular vote outright in Brazil’s capital city of Brasilia.

From left to right: Ronan Dantec, Deputy Mayor of the city of Nantes (France); Marina Silva, Presidential Candidate (Brazil); Dr Cathy Oke, City of Melbourne Councillor (Australia); Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu, Green Party of Canada Climate Change Critic; Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada

I had wanted to meet Marina ever since she left Lula’s government over disagreements about dam-building and other environmentally damaging policies and began to consider running for the Greens.     Read more »

Monthly Danforth Greens Pub Night
Tuesday, 2010 November 30, 7 pm – 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

Please join us on the last Tuesday of each month.  It’ll be fun. No, really.

I invite everyone to enjoy a solar-heated potluck Thanksgiving dinner with my family at our home.  My friend Rita is lending us her solar oven, which we’ll set up in the yard.  Bring something to share.  Make it local if you can to cut down on emissions because this event is one of the Global Work Day events to fight climate change.  We’ll share whatever is left over with a soup kitchen to honour the first annual World Homeless Day.

Thanksgiving solar potluck dinner
Sunday, 2010 October 10, 5pm – 9pm
18 Victor Ave (2 blocks north of Gerrard; just east of Broadview)
all welcome

I’ll be at the Ride for Renewables on October 3.  We meet at the Exhibition Place wind turbine with our bikes.  You can come early if you need a tune-up.  We’ll be visiting six green energy projects as inspiration for the 10/10/10 events the following week.

Ride for Renewables
Sunday, 2010 October 3, 11am – 3pm
Exhibition Place wind turbine (with bicycle)
All cyclists welcome – free

I’m the site coordinator for the four Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanups in our riding.

The last one is this weekend.  Join us!

Shoreline Cleanup: Polson Street Park
Saturday, 2010 September 25, 1 pm
west end of Polson St
(Polson St runs west from Cherry St, south of Commissioners Rd)

Monthly Danforth Greens Pub Night
Tuesday, 2010 September 28, 7 pm – 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

We meet on the last Tuesday of each month.  Please join us!

Probably shoulda posted this before:

Green Party of Canada Biennial National Convention
Fri – Sun, 2010 August 20 – 22
Metro Toronto Convention Centre

Tuesday, 2010 August 31, 7 pm – 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

We meet on the last Tuesday of each month.  Please join us!

Last night, my daughter and I put on our salwar kameez and abandoned her father and his achy back to enjoy ourselves at the South Asia Festival on Gerrard Street between Greenwood and Coxwell.  As usual, it featured wonderful music and lively dancing in the background, delicious street food smells spreading all over the street and plenty of activities for families to enjoy.  My daughter spent a few minutes pawing through a bin full of bangles to select a dozen for fifty cents.  Mango shakes are wonderfully refreshing on a hot summer day.  The festival continues today if you still want to check it out.

South Asia Festival continues
Sunday, 2010 July 18, noon to 11pm
Gerrard Street, east of Greenwood to Coxwell
free

Tuesday, 2010 July 27, 7 pm – 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

We meet on the last Tuesday of each month.  Please join us!

…please, whatever you do,     Read more »