Speaker Series

On 10 April, I was finally able to see Elizabeth May speak in person. She was in the city for the day and the UofA Greens hosted her for a talk in the afternoon. Her talk focused on the recent budget and all the horrible things it included. I was able to ask a question about whether this budget is the final stages of a "starve the beast" conservative policy. The best part was I was able to get a few minutes of Ms. May's time after the talk. I would have loved to have chatted longer with her but a small crowd was forming so I shuffled off. On 16 April, I attended the book tour lecture by Jarrett Walker, author of humantransit.org and the recently published book, "Human Transit." If you have an interest in how transit works, the book is an excellent read. Jarrett's talk was also excellent. He covered a few things in the book and a few things he said will be in his next book. Some of the questions afterwards were insightful but two "questioners" were just looking for validation on their personal views of transit. One went on and on and on about the proposed LRT line through Chinatown. She was concerned about seniors in the area being hit by the LRT. It was much more of a rant than a question and I don't think Jarrett agreed with her logic. In fact, he believes people around sixty should think about their future mobility as they age and might not be able to drive. The other questioner seemed to wonder about mixed-use around LRT stations but it took him about three minutes to get around to something which was nearly a question and he never used the term, "mixed-use."