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One of the most important things you can do for a sustainable and just Ottawa is vote in the municipal election on Monday, October 24, 2022.

One mayoral candidate offers a clear, achievable path towards this future: Catherine McKenney has a compelling vision of what Ottawa could be, and has offered feasible, community-based and costed ways of providing sustainable, accessible and equitable services while addressing the climate emergency. They have the commitment, experience, integrity and ability to bring people together to make positive change happen.

Green Living Ottawa was created in the belief that imagining desired futures—creating new stories, or “restorying”—can help people live sustainably. We need municipal leaders with alternative visions to the unsustainable and inequitable status quo, and with the ideas, energy, listening skills and engagement capacities to achieve them.

Your vote for mayor, city councillor, and school board trustee are vitally important.

To find out how to vote, check the City’s information for voters page.

To review candidates’ positions on environmental and social issues, check out:

• Ecology Ottawa’s All Candidates’ Environmental Survey results
• Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES) Ottawa’s Mayoral Eco-Debates videos
• Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital’s Candidate Endorsements
• Bike Ottawa’s Plan for Safer, Sustainable and Liveable Streets
• Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa’s Starts with Home campaign
• Horizon Ottawa’s Candidate Endorsements

Here are three ways to show your love on Valentine’s Day:

1 – If it’s through chocolate, go fair trade and sustainable. Camino, Hummingbird and Olivia are three locally based companies that sell great organic, fairtrade and/or sustainable chocolate around town.

2 – All that snow we’re getting has wreaked havoc for pedestrians and cyclists trying to use sidewalks or bike lanes. (Funny how the roads seem to get plowed first.) Do a bit of shovelling if you have sidewalk nearby; help out a neighbour.

3 – Most importantly, take part in Have a Heart Day. Have a Heart Day is all about showing support for First Nations children to get the services they need to live the healthy, safe and honoured lives they deserve and have a right to. The Canadian government has so far failed to comply with a 2016 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling that found the government is racially discriminating against First Nations children and their families by not providing services that other children have access to. Have a Heart Day supports the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society’s efforts to change this situation.

There are several ways to get involved in Have a Heart Day:

Send a Valentine to the Prime Minister and your MP, calling for immediate action and an end to discrimination;

Raise awareness in your workplace, school or community (try an activity or talk about it), and spread the word through social media;

Come to Parliament Hill from 10:30-11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017 to show support. Bring your letter, song or poem of respect, support and love for First Nations children!

 

Written by Denise Deby.

It’s been said that it’s hard for one person to make a difference in the world.

I’ve been thinking a lot about one person who did make a difference. Even more remarkable, she was an eight-year-old.

Kate inspired many people here in Ottawa, and elsewhere, with her joy and determination. All the more impressive because she lived with a rare form of mitochondrial disease—so rare that she was the first person in the world ever to be diagnosed with it.

She literally changed the lives of others for the better. She was the embodiment of what is right with this world and what we should all strive for.” – Julie (Kate’s mom)

You can read about Kate on Julie’s blog at http://searchingforsolidfooting.com/.

CBC did a story here.

#fightlikeagirl

 

Written by Denise Deby.

Way to go, Ottawa and Canada!

10,000-25,000 of us gathered at Ottawa City Hall and on Parliament Hill to tell leaders that we want to see climate solutions and justice.

It was a purposeful, joyful event.

Now it’s time for decisions, and action. We’ll be watching, and leading.

Written by Denise Deby.

It’s one of my favourite times of the year—Jane’s Walk time!

Jane’s Walk is an international celebration of cities and the people who live in and shape them. It’s a weekend of free walking tours led by volunteers who know something interesting about their city and are willing to share it.

In Ottawa, more than 50 walks will take place in neighbourhoods, historic places and natural spaces on May 2 and 3, 2015.

Here are a few examples:

• Learn about urban foraging with Amber Westfall;
• Explore turtle habitat on Petrie Island with Al Tweddle;
• Discover the Central Experimental Farm with Katherine Fletcher;
• Learn about the history of the Ottawa River’s Chaudière Falls with Louise Boucher;
• See central Ottawa from an Indigenous perspective with Jaime Koebel;
• Learn about the ecology of the Pinhey Sand Dune with Henri Goulet;
• Experience the riverbank at Andrew Haydon Park with Martha Webber and Andrea Usworth.

Check out these and other walks at http://janeswalk.herokuapp.com/sessions/7. All walks are free, take about an hour, and run in English or French.

Jane’s Walk organizers welcome volunteers, too.

There’s a “Jane’s Talk” on New Directions for Urban Infill with Ottawa city planner Alain Miguelez on Wednesday, Apr. 29, 7 p.m. at the NCC’s Urbanism Lab, 40 Elgin St. The weekend wraps up with a party on Sunday, May 3 at 4 p.m. at the Lieutenant’s Pump on Elgin.

Jane’s Walk is a great way to get to know your city, meet other people and get outdoors. Check it out!

From Jane’s Walk Ottawa:

The weekend-long festival of free walking tours is held to celebrate the work of urban thinker Jane Jacobs, who promoted livable cities, street-life vitality and attractive, uplifting places where people feel safe. It’s is a pedestrian-focused event that improves urban literacy by offering insights into planning, design, local history, and civic engagement through the simple acts of walking, observing, and discussing.”