Author Archives: trasie

About trasie

Settler/Treaty7; Bi🌈; She/They; Radical Feminist Witch; Geeker Girl; Musician; Single Mom; Nonprofit Activist; Community Builder; Community Builder.

(Political and Transportational) Choices

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I’ll admit it – I have a political crush on NDPer Megan Leslie (who’s running for re-election in Halifax). Why? 

  • She was voted “Rookie MP of the Year” in 2009.
  • When she spoke on Bill C-449 (giving seniors free access to transit in off-peak hours) she talked about the impact of free transit (“Free transit would greatly increase the quality of life by removing the terrible choice between rent, food, or heat and bus tickets.”) and called for the development of a National Transit Strategy for Canada.
  • She’s had some great clips recently on CBC because of her role as NDP spokesperson on health.

But, most of all, she’s running a carbon-neutral campaign that includes transit, cycling and carsharing. It’s nice to see someone who actually gets it – how we do the work matters as much as the work we’re doing. I look forward to the day when this is the norm, not the exception. Until then, I’ll work on convincing people that I’m not a saint just because I use Calgary Transit to get to work-related events, ok? (I’ll point out the other reasons instead, hehe.)


**Bonus points for her reference of climate-change discussions in this election campaign as an “issue of inter-generational equity” because, really, isn’t it?

(Cross-posted at Zero-Fare Canada who kindly invited me to post with them. Go check them out!)

Putting the "Over" in "Overachiever"

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So, I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front lately, but there’s actually a good reason for that. As of April 1, I’ve taken on a new position in the community: Director of Senior Centres at Calgary Seniors Resource Society. I’m overseeing the “big picture” pieces of community building/collaboration, funding, marketing, research /advocacy and human resources as the Executive Director at three senior centres (Bow Cliff Seniors, Ogden House Seniors and Parkdale Nifty Fifties). The title of the post says it all, really.

Quitter: A Story from the Recession

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This was me 25 years ago, only I was writing and protesting instead of cartooning….
A Story from the Recession
Quitter: A Story from the Recession via Shareable.net – Sharing by Design

So, what would you rather be doing right now? What’s holding you back from living your dreams? What do you need to quit doing/being/saying/believing right now that will bring you one step closer to living the life you should be?

Let’s Think Bigger, or What’s Our Vision for Canada?

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There’s been a lot in the media this week about the federal government’s decision to cut the number of family reunification visas that they will be issuing for parents/grandparents from 16,000 to 11,000. Most of the concern seems to be around the cost to Canada as these people age and receive benefits, specifically:
  • CPP: In order to receive benefits from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), a person has to have contributed to the program through payroll taxes. The benefits are calculated based on how long a person has contributed and at what rate, so it is really based on a person’s work experience in Canada. (There are problems with this, of course, such as the role of stay-at-home parents in the system, but that’s for another blog post.)
  • OAS/GIS: Old Age Security (OAS) provides you with a “modest” pension that starts when you turn 65, but you have to live in Canada for 10 years in order to qualify.The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) provides additional income to low income people who already qualify for the OAS (10 years in Canada). The rates for both are dismally low, with a maximum monthly benefit of about $1,200 a month – if you’ve lived in Canada for 40 years after the age of 18. Benefits are reduced for those who’ve lived here less.
  • Other Benefits: There is an Allowance or Allowance for the Survivor for those aged 60-64 whose spouses are collecting or who collected OAS. People receiving this allowance have to be in a low income bracket, have to be a Canadian citizen or legal resident and have to have lived in Canada for 10 years.
Personally, I see this as a bigger story than just numbers (just like I see the secondary suite debate as a bigger debate than parking and neighbourhood density, which is also another blog post). The impact of caring for aging parents on a family is enough of a task; putting legal barriers in the way of family responsibilities just adds to the stress. And it’s not just permanent immigration – trying to bring a family member here for a wedding or celebration has also become an almost impossible task for many immigrants. (If a family member has applied to immigrate, they are not allowed to visit until that claim is dealt with. The current wait for a claim to be resolved is 13 years. What’s happened in the last 13 years that you would have missed?)
As the population of the world ages, this is an issue we’re going to see again and again. As a country, we need to develop better ways of addressing the needs of seniors, their families and the greater communities in which they live.  The debate needs to be bigger than money – it needs to be about values and ethics and how we support each other in creating a better future for all. The vision needs to include how seniors age in community and how we support families as they address the needs of aging parents and grandparents – and it needs to include how we’re going to pay for that support. I’m not immune to the funding debates. I’m just not willing to have them be the only thing guiding my thought process.  
(Cross-posted at the Bow Cliff Blog, where we’re sharing our programs, services and opinions about growing older.  Check it out!)

When The Government Hands You (^ Not) Lemons…

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After being rebuked by the Speaker of the House last week, International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda admitted today that she had altered the document (by inserting the word “not”) which recommended KAIROS be given $7 million in funding from the federal government. And because I’m all about bigger discussions, I hope this leads to some press about how ministers should act when they disagree with the recommendations of their departments.
The bigger story – and kudos to them – is how KAIROS is handling the situation: tongue firmly in cheek. 

You can order a shirt of your very own on their website. I just love the creativity of nonprofits, don’t you?

"Moving Beyond the Automobile" on Streetfilms

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How exciting! Streetfilms just posted the trailer for its new 10-part series on reducing private automobile usage. Check it out below:

A new film will be posted every Tuesday, as well as lesson plans and discussion points if you’re planning a screening with a larger audience (especially nice after the DVD becomes available). I’m looking forward to the piece on carsharing, as we just had a great day-long strategic planning session for Calgary Carshare that included some exciting plans for increased visibility and membership in this city. (My to-do list includes “evaluate the membership application process”, “explore new partnerships with like-minded groups” and “bribe volunteers to fill out their timesheets”. And that’s just the first month!)

(Cross-posted at Zero-Fare Canada who kindly invited me to post with them. Go check them out!)

Blessed Imbolc!

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Who are the witches?
  Where do they come from?
Maybe your great-great
  grandmother was one.
Witches are wise, wise women they say.
  And there’s a little witch
  in every woman today.
Mmmhmm.

– Bonnie Bramble

19 years ago, I stood in a circle of women and took my vows… oh, wait, that’s someone else’s story. The truth is, 19 years ago I was in my second year of university, taking a class entitled “Christian Understanding of Human Nature”, when I came across the following term: Post-Christan. (Looking back and realizing that the author of that phrase, Daphne Hampson had been influenced by Luce Irigaray, it’s surprising that I also didn’t start wearing a beret and quoting Derrida. But I digress.) Reading Hampson led me to the works of Starhawk, which in turn led me to realize that what the church taught and what I actually believed were farther apart than I realized. And the rest is her-story.

Working Together to Get Seniors Moving (in More Ways than One)

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In October 2007, I started in my current position as an Executive Director of a nonprofit. As many EDs quickly discover, the job description and what you actually end up doing can be two very different things. Part of that evolution for me at Bow Cliff Seniors has been the increased emphasis on transportation issues facing our members: driving cessation, concerns about snow removal in neighbourhoods, changes in transit routes as the new West LRT line is developed, and challenges with Access Calgary and taxi wait times as a result of increased demand for these services, and so on. And, like many Executive Directors, I work best in collaboration.

One of the committees that I sit on, the ElderNet Transportation Planning Table, has been working on a mapping strategy to look at where seniors travel in our city and where the gaps are. It’s been a fascinating process already: learning that the trip from one senior centre to a hospital in the same city quadrant can take up to two hours on transit, while another transit route from a hospital to several care facilities has its last bus of the evening leave 15 minutes before visiting hours are over, has us thinking about “what” people are doing when they use transit. This is starting to make the news in Toronto as well: proposed cuts to routes would impact people who are mobile (War on Roller Derby) and not-so-mobile (Fiorito: Cuts threaten bus service to Toronto’s deaf-blind community).

Another collaboration opportunity has been the involvement of nursing students from the University of Calgary at our centre. This semester, the group is looking at how our members get to the centre, get groceries and get themselves to health services on a regular basis. I’ve also encouraged them to do a community survey to assess walking, transit and driving issues in the immediate neighbourhood, as keeping people engaged in community means being able to access it. It will be interesting to see what gaps they find here in relation to the bigger ElderNet project.

This week I’m also meeting with the coordinator of Get Up and Go, which connects seniors with “buddies” in an attempt to get people to ride transit. I’m hoping that the program will be a fit for BCS members, both as a way of getting more people to the centre (so they can participate in programs, access services, and not be isolated!) but also as another way of sparking a transit advocacy strategy process in the community. I still think the key to getting seniors using transit is to get them on it before they’re seniors, but that’s going to be a bigger project. (Hmmm….)

Trying to address social isolation without looking at root causes like transportation is a futile exercise. I’m glad that there are so many opportunities to work with others in the community, and I’m glad so many of them are recognizing that our transportation systems include more than individual vehicle ownership. What a radical concept, non?

(Cross-posted at Zero-Fare Canada who kindly invited me to post with them. Go check them out!)

It’s not a Holiday Unless Tech Support is Involved

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I’m lucky enough to be home for the holidays, where I’m spending the week setting up my dad’s new webcam so he can Skype with his grandkids (and earning another Nerd Merit Badge in the process). For those of you who are fielding calls from parents dealing with tech issues, I recommend Teach Parents Tech, where you can send a video showing exactly what you mean:

Blessed Solstice!

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Hail to you the longest night of all the turning year!
Awake the resurrecting light that banishes despair.
For now the tide will start to turn and night will yield to day
And the waning year will shed its skin and cast the dark away.  
Yule is come now beat the drum and light the Solstice flame 

Tonight we’ll sing a hymn of praise for the Sun returns again.


– Jaiya, Yule is Come

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(Also, check out this awesome photo of the lunar eclipse taken by Mark Zaugg. Xander and I went out to witness the event – what a magical night for creating the world as we want it to be!)