CILU May 12 2025 Bicycle & Land-Rooted City-Living
Email your news & reviews of action-informing resources: SomethingDifferentThisWayComes@proton.me
-Betty Carpick: Being Ancestors
-Ken Shields Biking Viking Travels Green
DrawDown Project three spheres of needed change:
Waste Less (GHG emmissions to net zero)
Restore Carbon Sinks (healthy ecosystems capture carbon)
Improve Society (many hands make for light work)
Monday, May 12, 2025 6:00 pm Come join us on our Monthly Full Moon Mass Rides to support the improvement of Active Transportation in Thunder Bay!
Meet up at Superstore near A&W as we take an easy group ride in a loop around a different area of Thunder Bay each month, then return to Superstore for coffee.
Bring your blinky lights, helmets, noise makers, your high vis clothes if you have and all your friends and family.
Song: Bicycle Race by Queen
-Ken Shields Biking Viking Travels Green
Safe Cycling resources & lessons Eco Superior
Tuesday - Let’s Talk About Our City West Thunder Community Centre 6-8 pm
Join City Staff for a casual, drop-in event where you can connect directly with us, ask questions, share your ideas, and learn more about the services, projects, and initiatives shaping our community. There are no formal presentations, just friendly conversation, a free BBQ, snacks, giveaways, and a chance to win a door prize.
Everyone is welcome! Thunder Bay Talks is about connection, community, and conversation.
Come as you are, bring your questions, share your views and help shape the future of our city.
Wed Westfort Ward Meeting 7-9 West Thunder Community Centre
w Councillor Kristen Oliver 915 Edward St. S.
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May 24 Repair Cafe (w Community Spokes) 10-1 Mary J L Black Library - taking bookings now: https://www.tbayrepaircafe.org/
Free DIY bike repair / sale refurbished used bikes & accessories & affordable new parts / build your own bike
Song: Totally Worth It by Heather McLeod - from podcast w Ken Shields Biking Viking Travels Green
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Tonight: City Council Synergy North Annual Report
Strategic Plan: The future of the electricity industry is filled with tremendous opportunities, particularly in areas such as green energy, electric vehicles, and emerging home-based technologies. As we move forward, SYNERGY NORTH is uniquely positioned to help our customers capitalize on these opportunities, while continuing to deliver reliable, sustainable energy services. We are committed to playing an integral role in Ontario’s energy transition and creating new prosperity in both Thunder Bay and Kenora. (pg 7 - message from the Chair)
More Renewable Energy Built than Fossil Fuel since 2023 - https://www.theenergymix.com/renewable-energy-growth-outpaces-fossil-fuels-for-the-first-time/
953 homes powered by renewable assets to date (pg 8)
Pg 12 - survey of customer priorities: most of them green: efficiency, reliability, reducing GHG emissions; climate change resilience
Pg 13 - solar generation, Mapleward renewable generation & condensate trap redesign project, now tracking scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions
Pg 14 - visited schools to talk about career at Synergy North as STEM career; supported Bright Futures camp last August at FWFN (STEM learning)
Pg 18 - EV Registration Program (connect owners w resources / pro-active insight into owner infrastructure needs)
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National News:
Canada Strong Pass under 18 free, discounts 18-24, National Galleries & Museums (Ottawa: Food & Agriculture; Aviation; Art Gallery + Winnipeg Human Rights, Pier 21 in Halifax), free travel on VIA Rail when with their parents, June to August. Lower camping fees in National Parks (free?) Pukaskwa. VIA N ON: E: Armstrong, Chapleau, Hornpayne, White River + W: Nakina & Sault Lookout.
Canada Dental Plan all ages by end of May - Canadian Residents, filed taxes, family income under $90K, no dental coverage already in place
Lakehead Social Planning COuncil - free tax filing (10,000/yr is expanding), drop in Wednesday Victoriaville mall year-round. Earn under $35K individual - under $45K as a couple = eligible.
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Part 2:
Clip: Justin Rutledge’s River Story
Music: Heart of a River by Justin Rutledge (The Early Widows)
-Betty Carpick: Being Ancestors
City beginning process of updating it’s Water Systems Plan - focus drinking water, also natural heritage features, wetlands, community planning. Tied to building our housing stock and updating our infrastructure for a climate change extremes. Promise community consults starting this month!
Landrace Watermelons and Squash project
Evalisa McIllfaterick. Three year Landrace project: Ottawa grower w 23 varieties; 2 Thunder Bay growers + one in QC. Save seeds first 25/year taste great. Second year: northern varieties already maturing earlier, adapting to shorter growing season, more of the seeds viable… I’m participating in year four or five. So excited!
Supported by Going to Seed a project of Empowerment Works, a not-for-profit social change organization advancing a whole system approach to a sustainable world. Going to Seed offers Free educational resources, respective & inclusive online community
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May 15 - Thunder Bay Horticultural Society monthly meeting third Thursday Oliver Rd. Community Centre 7 pm. All welcome to check them out, if you love it, join the club. Topics: Butterflies & Flower Show Refresher.
https://www.tbdhu.com/sites/default/files/files/resource/2016-02/Community%20Gardens.pdf - N-149 Community Gardens coalition offers to help groups get gardening - information, tools, advice
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Whispers from the North - Native Plant Garden Consult 30-60 minute site visit, consult, one page report $150 - $250 Thunder Bay.
Music: Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden by Valley
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We now have an official chapter of Fair Vote Canada in Thunder Bay. Fair Vote Thunder Bay!! Fair Vote Canada is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that promotes a system of proportional representation as the only electoral system that can:
- make every vote count
- produce governments that genuinely reflect the will of Canadian voters
- eliminate false majority governments
- eliminate the need for strategic voting
- reduce partisan hostilities and flip-flop legislation (on important environmental issues, among other things)
To support the goals of Fair Vote Thunder Bay! & find out more, visit fairvote.ca and/or sign the Declaration of Voters' Rights at https://secure.fairvote.ca/en/declaration
Longest Ballot Protest in Carlton - Pierre Polievre's riding. 91 candidates, 85 of them protesters responded to the Longest Ballot Committee's posts on social media looking for volunteers to run in designated ridings as part of an electoral reform protest. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/longest-ballot-protest-carleton-riding Volunteer because they believe the current system — first past the post — needs to be reformed to elect governments that better reflect society and voters. Members of the Longest Ballot committee collected the necessary signatures (each candidate must submit signatures from at least 100 residents of the riding). “All I had to do was fill out the electronic forms on the Elections Canada site and prove I was the actual person and qualified to run.” Many had done this more than once before: municipal, provincial, bi-elections. Growing movement
Longest Ballot did not contribute to Polievre Losing (and other false claims getting shared through social media)
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New Shop in town!
Antler arts (jewellery & stand-alone art) & water colours - fish in the Wolf River spawning thick
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New monthly short-film series: The NOrth End Film Collective, North End Rec Centre May 13 (Tuesday). Includes Local Filmmakers work. $5. @voxpopularfilmfestival on instagram to stay posted. - Found in the May edition of the Walleye page 33
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Blue Zones - longevity, friendship, food and nature
- Natural movement.
From household chores by hand to running errands by foot, day-to-day tasks keep them physically active. - Found purpose.
Known as “Ikigai” in Okinawa and “plan de vida” in Nicoya, their reason for waking up in the morning kept them motivated and hopeful for the future. - Time for rest.
Stress is linked to chronic inflammation and major age-related illnesses, so to cope, the longest-living individuals make sure to pray, take naps and enjoy happy hour. - Eat differently.
The Okinawan practice of “hara hachi bu,” a 2,500-year-old Confucian mantra, reminds them to stop when their stomachs are 80% full to prevent overeating. Blue Zone inhabitants consume their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening and abstain from eating for the remainder of the day. - Plant-based diet.
Beans like fava, black, soy, and lentils are the foundation of most centenarian diets. Meat is consumed only about five times per month, in 3-4 oz. portions, roughly the size of a deck of cards. - Wine in moderation.
Except for the Adventists, people in all Blue Zones enjoy moderate and regular alcohol consumption. The key is to have 1-2 glasses per day, preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine, and to share it with friends or consume it with food. - Believe in something.
Nearly all centenarians interviewed in Blue Zones were members of faith-based communities. The specific denomination appears to be insignificant, but research indicates that attending faith-based services at least four times per month can extend life expectancy by 4-14 years. - Prioritize loved ones.
Successful centenarians in the Blue Zones prioritize their families by keeping parents and grandparents close and committing to a long-term partner. - Community.
The world’s longest-lived individuals deliberately select or are born into social circles that encourage healthy behaviours and take care of one another.
People eating together without phones in Kapuskasing, Hearst vs. Toronto—-----------------------------------
Song: Old Friends by Simon & Garfunkle
Heather McLeod
Host & Producer
Former CBC journalist and host, recording artist and songwriter, published author and CFP (certified financial planner). I live on the edge of Thunder Bay on the homestead that my husband grew up on. We keep honey bees, laying hens, a market garden and (soon) goats. I moved here from Montreal in 2002 and never plan on leaving. I am tenth generation settler heritage.
