The Council of Canadians Thunder Bay chapter is connecting with Leap Thunder Bay in preparation for the municipal election on October 22, 2018.
In a blog posted on April 27, The Leap notes, “Earlier this month, a new local Leap group launched in Thunder Bay, Ontario, unveiling their own, localized version of the manifesto—and a bold proposal for how to enact the platform, by running a slate of Leap candidates for City Council in next year’s municipal election.”
It adds, “Like the original manifesto, Thunder Bay’s version begins with a call to respect Indigenous rights and sovereignty, and sets out some of the local dimensions of a rapid transition to 100% renewables. Most of the document’s 10 demands are thoroughly rooted in the needs and hopes of the Thunder Bay community, ranging from bolstering small business and ending homelessness, to finding ways to invite and assist new residents (‘no matter their place of origin’), to reclaiming empty spaces within city limits for the public. Leap Thunder Bay is hoping to engage with and support as many candidates committed to the platform as possible, and aims to elect at least a majority of the council.”
Leap Thunder Bay says, “We believe this change has to start at a local and neighbourhood level and that electing a team of city councillors who will work together to support the Leap Manifesto and endorse this vision will be an important first step.”
Our Thunder Bay chapter was also engaged in the last municipal election.
In the lead-up to the October 2014 election, it produced this report card by asking all the candidates running in that election whether they supported or opposed the 1.1 million barrel per day Energy East tar sands pipeline.
At the September 18, 2015 media conference in Toronto that launched the Leap Manifesto, a reporter asked, “How do you plan to use and move forward this manifesto?” Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow responded, “At the grassroots level we have in our organization local activist chapters and they are hungry for this kind of vision and direction. I think we’ll see it outward around the world but I think it will also be dramatically welcomed by grassroots communities around this country.”
Since then, more than 4,290 people have gone to twenty-seven Council of Canadians chapter-organized screenings of ‘This Changes Everything’ across the country, which have often included discussions about the Leap Manifesto.
Furthermore, our Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter and its allies are key supporters of the Localizing LEAP committee in their community. In October 2016, they hosted Avi Lewis at a well-attended to public forum to help spread the word about the Leap Manifesto and what is being done locally.
Last weekend, our Windsor-Essex chapter and Windsor on Watch organized a Leap Manifesto survey. To do so, they set up an information table at an Earth Day gathering in Malden Park and posted each of the Leap Manifesto’s 15 demands on a display board. They then asked people which three demands they most strongly support.
To read the Leap Thunder Bay 10-point manifesto, please click here.
