Thursday, August 27, 2009

Home farming unit


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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Municipal Green Politics?

Municipal Green Association


from http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2009/02/municipal-green-association.html
Richard Murray recently posted a very interesting proposal on the Green Party Blog which I thought was worth giving a little more light of day. The only problem that I see would be keeping “politics” out of the municipal arena, not that in many cases it is not bubbling beneath the surface already.

His proposal is to create the Canadian Municipal Green Party Association (CMPGA), which would have five objectives:

To encourage Canadians to become involved in the Canadian political system,2. To educate members of the CMGPA in the workings of their local municipal government,3. To train members on how to campaign for office,4. To train members on how to hold office, and5. To provide a grassroots communications forum for those involved in municipal politics……….

This Association would not be a political party. The CMGPA would exist to encourage and support the involvement at the municipal level of individuals who believe the fundamentals of the Global Greens, The Green Party of Canada and their provincial Green Party……………..

There are two reasons why the Green Party at both the provincial and federal levels should support the CMPGA:
Participatory Democracy is one of our fundamental principles, and
Municipal politics serves as a training and recruiting ground for both provincial and federal politics…………..

There would be three functions the CMPGA would carry out;
Encouragement to the general public to learn about and be active in Canadian politics.1. “While we would naturally prefer you to be a member of the Green Party, we consider it a victory if you decide to become active in any way.”2. To be an information and training resource to our members. This would primarily be through the Internet.3. To encourage our members to share information and help each other. This would be through forums on the Internet and through meetings.

Do read the whole thing, we do need fresh blood in our political system and this may be one way to help those interested in getting involved.

Update – See the CMGPA website.

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Superstack Kick It On Down

Sudbury based southern sounding rockers SuperStacK kicking it out with a Band title that is a total salute to Sudbury

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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Neutrinos They Are Very Small:



Neutrinos They Are Very Small: Render (UW Art Gallery)

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Saturday, August 8, 2009

Imagine That - Converting parking to planting

Here's a post from ImagineSudbury suggesting some new productive uses for Sudbury's Downtown parking lots.


Did you know that Victory Gardens supplied more than 40% of American food production during the World War II. And with the current economic events, the Victory Garden is making a comeback.

The plan involves taking out wasteful lawned areas or wasted downtown land and getting the community involved in vegetable & food gardening. In 2008 San Francisco implemented this program on its beautiful lawns in front of the Town Hall building. The lawns were ripped up and donated to those who wanted it. Raised beds were built using burlap bags stuffed with straw, forming keyhole-round gardens that would allow gardeners to use the most space with minimal tools & absolutely no chemicals & pesticides.

see http://sfvictorygardens.org

The idea is fantastic, and we have a large mass of land in Sudbury's downtown that has been lying wasted for more than 2 years. In fact it has been used as a shopping cart dumping ground for quite some time.

We need to take that land back while nothing is getting done about it. Based on the lot size and a quick walk around, the lot could easily supply enough room for up to 100 families using raised beds starting in the mid spring 2010. The land is sealed by asphalt so it wouldn't be such a big deal to move the gardens once the season has changed, but I would suggest that bringing people especially needy families to grow their food downtown would open up a wide zone of possibility in our downtown. Call your local councillor & get hold of the Mayor at mayor@greatersudbury.ca



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