The Green Party of Canada in collaboration with Peace Alliance Winnipeg.

Broadway Disciples Church
396 Broadway St
Winnipeg, MB

With Stephen Harper shuttering Parliament once again, Green Party leader and MP Elizabeth May is reaching out directly to Canadians. In Town Halls across Canada, she invites you to share concerns and seek solutions to threats to democracy – electoral reform and how to fix the democracy deficit.

We live in a country where
– citizens are refusing to vote in record numbers because they do not see their views reflected or respected
– a political party with less than 50% of the popular vote can get a majority in the House of Commons and govern without regard for the views of most Canadians
– where the Prime Minister can shut down Parliament to avoid dealing with situations he finds embarrassing
– where Members of Parliament are expected to represent the policies of their parties to their constituents, rather than the aspirations of their constituents to Parliament

Peace Alliance Winnipeg and the Green Party of Canada are co-sponsoring this public forum on Canadian democracy and how it could be so much better.

Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Time: 7:30 – 9:30 (doors open at 7:00 p.m.)
Place: Broadway Disciples United Church, 396 Broadway (Winnipeg)
Admission: a donation of $5.00 is requested to defray expenses; no one will be turned away who cannot afford this.

Speakers’ Biographies:

Elizabeth May is leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands. She has a long record as a committed and dedicated advocate — for social justice, for the environment, for human rights, and for economic pragmatic solutions. She is an environmentalist, writer, activist and lawyer who has been active in the environmental movement since 1970.

Leah Gazan holds a M.Ed degree and teaches in the Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg. She has considerable experience in program creation and management, and governance structure development. Leah has worked with First Nations communities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, is dedicated towards delivering programs and services to the inner city and rural Indigenous Communities, and is also active in a number of organizations and programs that promote social justice, including the Idle No More Movement.

Dennis Lewycky is the Executive Director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg. He has managed professional teams assisting organizations and governments (provincial, federal, international) to meet program or policy requirements. Countries where he has worked include Belize, Botswana, Colombia, Tanzania, Israel, various Caribbean Islands, Pakistan and Uganda.

James Henry Ashdown

(31 March 1844 – 5 April 1924), the “Merchant Prince of Winnipeg”, arrived in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1868 and at that time began his business as a tinsmith. In 1870 he purchased two lots on the corner of Main Street and Bannatyne Avenue, the location of the Ashdown retail store for over one hundred years. Ashdown’s successful real estate speculation, combined with his business acumen, made him a millionaire by 1910.

John Somerset Aikins (1850-1911)

MLA (1879-1883), financier.

John Somerset Aikins was the eldest son of J. C. Aikins (later a Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba). He was educated at Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto. In 1887 he married Abby Lemira Colby (?-1943), daughter of the Hon. C. C. Colby, and they had two children. He came west in 1875, taking up residence in Winnipeg in 1879. In 1880 he represented Rockwood in the Manitoba Legislature. He was a director of the Winnipeg General Hospital, and a member of the real estate firm of Aikins and Montgomery, and Aikins and Pepler.

He was a founding member of the St. Charles Country Club.

Dawson Kerr Elliott (1853-1946)

Merchant.

Born at Pakenham, Ontario on 11 July 1853, the second of eleven children born to John Elliott and Margaret Kerr, brother of G. A. Elliott, he was educated at the Pakenham High School. He opened a dry goods business at Arnprior, Ontario in 1871 then moved to Winnipeg in 1879. He was taken into business partnership by R. J. Whitla in 1881. He became President of R. J. Whitla & Company after Whitla’s death. He was also President of the Western King Garment Company, director of the Royal Bank of Canada and Northern Trusts Company, and ex-President of the Winnipeg Board of Trade.

James Thomas Gordon (1858-1919)

MLA (1900-1903), MLA (1903-1907), MLA (1908-1910), businessman.

Born at Tweed, Hastings County, Ontario on 24 December 1859, son of John and Sarah Gordon, he was educated at public schools of Tweed. He commenced farming in 1877 and came to Manitoba in 1879 where he entered the employ of the lumber firm of Dick, Banning & Company. He later engaged in the lumber business on his own account, between 1882 and 1885, and in lumber, cattle and wheat at Pilot Mound, Manitoba from 1885 to 1893.

He established the cattle firm of Gordon & Ironsides in 1893 and incorporated it in 1902, with branches at Fort William, Port Arthur, Kenora, Rainy River, Sudbury, Montreal, Sault Ste. Marie, Regina, Moose Jaw, and Saskatoon. He also served as President of the Monarch Life Insurance Company, A. Carruthers & Company, Standard Trust Company, and Royal Securities Company, and a Director of the Sterling Bank.

Hodgson Wilberforce Hutchinson (1862-1949)

Merchant.

Born at Enniskillen, Ontario on 20 October 1862, son of Robert and Abigail Hutchinson, he was educated at public schools and Albert College (Belleville, Ontario). In 1880, he started working as a clerk in his father’s store at Enniskillen. He came to Winnipeg in 1883 and joined Fairfield and Company in 1888. In 1911, he was Managing Director of the John Deere Plow Company. In 1923 he became a shareholder and director in the company.

He was Vice-President of the Manitoba Anchor Fence Company and the Winnipeg Implement Dealers Association. He was a director of the Bank of Hamilton, Western Grocers of Winnipeg, Tees and Persse Limited, Dominion Fruit Limited, A. R. McNichol Limited, Fisher and Burpe Limited, and President of the Winnipeg Board of Trade in 1904. He served 30 years on the Board of Governors of Wesley College, and Chairman of Community Chest for four years.

Joseph Walter Sparling (1843-1912)

Cleric, educator.

Born in Blanchard, Perth County, Canada West (Ontario) on 14 February 1843, he was educated in St. Mary’s High School and received his BA and MA, 1874, from Victoria University, Cobourg. He received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity (1871) and Doctor of Divinity (1889) at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He was ordained a minister of the Methodist Church in Belleville, Ontario in 1871.

In 1871, he married Susan Weir Kerr of Toronto. They had three children, including J. K. Sparling and F. W. S. Sparling.

He served in pastorates of the Methodist Church in Montreal, Ottawa, and Kingston, and was president of the Montreal conference of the Methodist Church in Canada. In 1888 he was selected by the Church Board of Governors to establish Wesley College at Winnipeg. He was a member of the Board of Education and of the General Board of missions of the Methodist Church in Canada.

Sparling Hall on the University of Winnipeg Campus is named for J. W. Sparling.

Robert James Whitla (1846-1905)

Born in County Monaghan, Ireland, on 22 April 1846, the son of Robert Whitla and Ann Williams. After spending some years in New York and in Eastern Canada he came to Winnipeg in 1879 and established a dry goods business on Main Street. In 1882 he formed a partnership with D. K. Elliott in wholesale trade. Although Conservative, he opposed his party on the question of disallowance in the 1880s and later in the matter of separate schools. He served as a Captain in the 90th Regiment during the 1885 North West Rebellion.

James Tees (1854-1906)

Businessman, choirmaster.

Born in Montreal on 13 November 1854, the son of David Tees and Mary Curran. He left school at the age of eleven and became an apprenticed metal engraver. He was married in 1880 to Margaret Grace Smith of Montreal, and they had one son.

In 1881 he was appointed manager of the Winnipeg office of the Canada Lead Works. He resigned in 1885 and became associated with John Persse as a commission and manufacturing broker. He was better known throughout Western Canada for his efforts on behalf of music than through his commercial reputation. While he was choirmaster of Grace Church, Winnipeg for over ten years, the choir attained a reputation second to none in the West. He was also associated with the Winnipeg Operatic Society and the Winnipeg Oratorio Society. He organized and conducted the Male Voice Choir of Winnipeg, was a member of the Assiniboine Curling Club, president of the Rouer Bicycle Club, president of the Garry Lacrosse Club and a member of the Gymnastic Committee of the Winnipeg YMCA, and the St. Charles Country Club.