2012 by-election nomination contestant: Ann Peel

Ann Peel is endorsed by Mary Ann Grainger, former CEO of the Toronto-Danforth Green Party Assn and Campaign Manager of Toronto-Danforth’s 2008 federal election campaign; and Chris Lea, former leader of the Green Party of Canada.

Dear fellow Toronto-Danforth greens,

I’m not at home. I’m away on a trip and will miss the nomination meeting, but I am most pleased there will be a contest. For the last few years I have been impressed with the hard work of Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu but I am convinced that a change would be heathy and take us to a new level. After considering the candidates I would like to endorse Ann Peel to be our next candidate.

Chris Lea, former Leader, Green Party of Canada

Ann Peel writes:

A long time resident of Toronto-Danforth, I am committed to our community.  I live, shop, play, and have campaigned for the GPO in this vibrant, complex part of our city.  Knocking on doors, chatting with neighbours and business owners, I am consistently encouraged by the attention of the residents of our riding to the priorities of a sustainable future marked by social cohesion and creative responses to our issues.

And our issues are becoming ever more pressing.  In a country growing ever more inward-looking at a time of intense globalization, we need leaders with vision who have a proven record of effecting positive change. We must work together to take Canada forward as a leader among nations, to regain the international respect we once had, particularly in our attention to a sustainable future.

We need to speak up for the voices who know a healthy environment is essential to a prosperous economy. We need to speak out for strong communities and work with those who understand that without social cohesion we will lose the shared sense of purpose that made Canada great.

I know how to be that voice and to effect change.  As the daughter of a Canadian foreign service officer, raised in Eastern Europe, I bore witness to the courage it takes to speak up against the tide.  As an athlete, competing and winning medals for Canada for over a decade, I spoke up for athletes. Together with greats, such as Crazy Canuck Steve Podborski,  we founded the Canadian Athletes Association to ensure that athletes were recognized as people with human rights, not subject to arbitrary decision making. During my tenure as founding co-Chair, I led massive change in our sport system, participating actively in the political process at the federal level.  I was immersed in a successful education campaign on effecting change in Canada.  So successful that I was asked to run for the Liberals, a request I turned down.

I believe active communities improve our health and our quality of life.  As the first Executive Director of Right to Play, I was part of the successful effort to have sport included in the United Nations definition of Official Development Assistance (ODA). This was a fantastic effort – we rallied the heads of the UN agencies, American politicians (including Mitt Romney, as our efforts coincided with the Salt Lake City Olympics), and luminaries such as Kofi Annan and Bishop Desmond Tutu.  We built coalitions across political lines in support of sport – a powerful, neutral tool of human development, but one that had never been formally recognized. In those days I worked in Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa, implementing programs, in Geneva designing them and creating the conditions for support, and in New York building the alliances necessary for funding. My children asked me to come home after 3 years of this, which I did.

I brought what I learned home to Canada where I worked with young people, motivating them to think about the world we need to build, their role in that world, and supporting their efforts to take action on their ideas in alliances with young people across the city.

In my own life, I began my involvement with the Greens in 2007 when a friend introduced me to the first political platform that took a creative and original approach to addressing Canada’s domestic issues and international stature.

I ask you to support me as your Toronto-Danforth GPC candidate because I have lived a public life and have the skills to share our green vision with voters. I know how to work with the media. I learned that as an activist athlete. I know how to build cross sector, cross party alliances that advance change. I know how to motivate and persuade.  And everything I do is rooted in integrity and a deep personal commitment to sustainability and social cohesion. Thank you.

Please contact me at annpeel61@gmail.com.

Ann Peel is one of the contestants to be the Green Party candidate in the Toronto-Danforth 2012 by-election. Come to the nomination meeting on February 5 at 4pm, Riverdale Branch of the Toronto Public Library.