Clearing a New Path

Ame-Lia Tamburrini: Circles for Change in Rural Canada

Recently, I’ve been thinking deeply about the value of circles when it comes to community building and community engagement. It seems to me that the division we see in Canada’s rural communities often comes down to always hearing from the same voices and not hearing from voices who have something new to say; new or different ideas. When we live under systems that certainly benef...

Belinda Clemmensen - Women, Leadership and Saving the World

Over the holidays this year, I took a connection break. That meant trying my best to unhinge from social media and work.  I felt like I needed to rethink the podcast strategy and actually take a look at myself and what was holding me back, my own personal journey.

I watched the documentary “Deconstructing Karen” with Saira Rao and Regina Jackson, two women of colour who host...

Will 2023 Bring Clean and Resilient Growth for Rural Canada? - John McNally - PLACE Centre

What is clean and resilient growth and how does it fit into a rural perspective in Canada and will 2023 be the year we realize those in rural Canada?

This week's episode is the first of what I hope will be many conversations with the folks at PLACE Centre, which is a new initiative of the Smart Prosperity Institute (SPI).

My guest is John Mc...

Autumn Ongaro - FEAD: A Taste of Home in Norfolk County

This is the third in a series of rural-based authors. I love this book because it’s a combination of a recipe book and a storybook.

Autumn Ongaro is the author of FEAD, a delightful reference on seasonal cooking that celebrates the bounty of fresh foods in Norfolk County. It will carry you through the four seasons as Autumn shares the stories and histories of many farms, and cra...

Grandview HealthCare Solutions is a grassroots, community driven organization that grew out of the need to better serve patients in Grandview, Manitoba and the immediate surrounding area. This is another case of a community coming together to create solutions for rural health care. You’ll hear clearly how the Regional Health Authority in the area is making decisions that don’t work for this rural community (and many others) and the...

Catharine Wilson - Being Neighbours: Cooperative Work and Rural Culture, 1830–1960

I have a fascination with Canadian history and more specifically, rural Canadian history. I have a keen interest in what life was like in rural Canada many years ago but I have a passion for discovering the voices that we are missing.

Consulting the oracle or Google, to dig up some rural Canadian history, I came across the Rural Diary Archive and its F...

Physicians Assistants: Can Physicians Side-Step Ego to Health Rural Health Care? Eric Demers and Dr. Alex Nataros

Physicians Assistants or PAs are, in essence physician extenders, they extend the care of a primary physician. They are not nurses, nurses assistants nor are they practical nurses.

PAs got their start in the US in the 60s to respond to a shortage and uneven geographical distribution of doctors (sound familiar)? The PA pro...

Ann Douglas - Navigating the Messy Middle

A Fiercely Honest and Wildly Encouraging Guide for Midlife Women

This is the first in our series of Rural Authors and Rural Books.

Ann is an award-winning writer and bestselling author. She is the creator of The Mother of All Books®  series, which has sold over half a million copies in North America to date. For decades, Ann was Canada’s most trusted writer on all things parenting, and often h...

This is the second in a series of interviews about rural Canadian health care. Last episode we talked about the BC Rural Health Network, a collective of citizen-led collaborators that have organized to put pressure on the government and basically get folks to pay attention to the unique needs in rural health care, specifically in rural British Columbia.

Another part of putting pressure on the government comes from the physicians the...

One of the fundamental challenges in rural Canadian communities is health care. Folks in rural and remote communities are not the same as our urban counterparts and therefore our health care needs to be different.

And there are so many aspects to that. Over the next few episodes, I’ll cover a number of elements relating to rural health. 

The first one is how to include residents in solutions-based health care.

The BC Rural Health Netw...

Kaity and Montana Adams own Adams Family Ink and Boutique on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, near Brantford, Ontario but it is clear Kaity runs the business. But this is at the root of her Indigenous heritage and family teaching, you will hear in this episode.

Kaity was born and raised on Six Nations, on the Onondaga First Nation. She is Deer Clan and a proud Haudenoshawnee woman. Her husband Montana is from Aamjiwnaang Fi...

Politicization of Wind Energy in Rural Canada

This topic was brought to me by one of our newsletter subscribers named Ruby. She’s concerned that hundreds of wind turbines are moving into an area of Eastern Ontario where she and her husband plan to retire. She shared a noise level assessment with me and I did some research into other areas that fought against the turbines coming to their area, and won. Here's a write up about it...

Bias, Hate and Extremism - Part 2

(This episodes is the second of two-parts)

This is part 2 of a two part series on bias, hate and extremism, specifically in rural Canada. If you haven’t heard it, I hope you listen to part one, but it’s not a prerequisite to listen to this one.

In part one I talked about how most people hold opinions and biases and that in online spaces, particularly social media platforms, with algorithms that help p...

(This episodes is the first of two-parts)

Almost everyone has a bias, a way of thinking, an opinion, it’s pretty much human nature. Journalists, when I went to journalism school, were only supposed to report on facts and not opinion. That has drastically changed. And in an age where many of us spend lots of time on online social platforms, the bias continues to be confirmed by where we choose to click and view and modern day algorit...

Every Sunday I've been hosting Open Circle Zoom calls, inviting folks from across rural Canada to talk about the issues on their mind that week. This was recorded just ahead of Ontario's municipal elections and leaks to media that suggested the Ontario government might impose changes to the powers of municipalities AFTER the Ontario municipal election.

Erik was calling in from Unity, Saskatchewan and is concerned about the d...

Solving a trades shortage - Add more women

Is your small community struggling to find qualified tradespeople? Are you looking for someone to do some work for you or are you a business owner, hunting for certified employees?

Recently Canada’s federal government announced a call for proposals from organizations that train and support folks from underrepresented groups (including women) in the trades and non-traditional professions. Acc...

*2SLGTBQIA+ is an acronym for Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and the plus reflects the countless affirmative ways in which people choose to self-identify.

Canada’s large urban centres have long been supportive and embrace of members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, recognizing they are an integral and important part of any diverse community, however rural communities t...

I hosted another Sunday open Zoom call, this time it was on Thanksgiving weekend (for those who celebrate).

I was joined by Leslie from Nelson, British Columbia and Carrie from Caledon, Ontario.

Leslie is retired and is running in her local municipal election. She is a longtime climate activist and is concerned about development and the voices that she's not hearing, the people she's not seeing at the all candidates meetings ...

Women in rural and remote politics - Is change possible?

WARNING: Cursing and at least one f-bomb - at the latter end of the episode

This episode focuses on some of the abysmal stats when it comes to the representation of women in Canada, particularly rural Canada and what we should be doing about it. Shari Graydon joins me, the creator and head of the organization, Informed Opinions. And I’ll also talk to a current female mayor abou...