On Friday night, November 4, a small group of local residents got together at The HUB for a stimulating evening of ideas and conversation. Organized by Matt Richter, a Muskoka teacher and provincial Parry Sound-Muskoka Green Party candidate, the Inspire Session is a cross between a TED Talk-style presentation and Ignite sessions, with audience participation thrown in.
“I wanted these to be truly local stories,” said Richter. “These types of meetings are amazing and we don’t have enough of them with all the negativity and the drudgery in the headlines. Tonight I wanted to share a fun evening for free to bring people together to be inspired by stories of hope, optimism and perseverance. This is what I want to see politics become more of. Let’s come together as a community more and hear from the people doing amazing things in our neighbourhoods. Let’s raise the bar of what politics can be.”
The format had two small groups listening to two speakers and engaging in a Q&A before rotating to listen to and ask questions of the other two speakers. “With multiple speakers talking in front of smaller crowds, there’s more opportunity to be engaged. We already do Town Halls but I would like to see politicians being more like facilitators and getting people to think critically about the ideas from different speakers working at the grassroots. To make that happen, you need to have small groups. The interaction lets people get at the core of the issues more.”
Will Towns, who grew up in Bracebridge, shared his UWaterloo thesis “Federal involvement in Canadian urban transit: recommendations for action”.
Selected comment: In reply to a listener lamenting the loss of passenger train service to Huntsville and contrasting it with train networks in Germany, Towns said, “(In Germany), they have strong buy-in at every level. There’s political will where we have none. Getting passenger train service requires that we buy back all the rights of way that were sold to freight companies and they’re not interested in reducing the amount of freight that they use or sharing those peak ridership times. There are huge governance barriers that we are nowhere near solving.”
Kelly Watson from Muskoka Brewery talks about the importance of a living wage
Kelly Watson, Director of People and Development at Muskoka Brewery, talked about her company’s efforts to pay all of its employees a living wage.
Selected comment: Watson noted the effect a living wage has on social inclusion, and said, “They’re going to stores, they’re going to restaurants…so that money comes back into the economy. We have a lot of seasonal employment and this helps to boost it on a year round basis.”
Jen Nicholson and Willis Bullen, paddlers who placed third in their category in the 130km Muskoka River X with a time of just over 21 hours, shared their experience of the marathon race.
Selected comment: When asked if they’d do it again, Jen replied, “I’d like to do it again. There are a lot of local people who have done it and managed to bring down their time by packing more efficiently, being more efficient on the portage, and improving their paddling style. That would be my hope if I did it again: to shave off two or three hours.” And she encouraged others to give it a try. “There’s also an 80km sprint, so for anyone who is interested there are some shorter races to try.”
Jenny Spring, founder and co-owner of The Spring Farmer, gave the group insight into the challenges of farming in Muskoka.
Selected comment: A surprising challenge for the farm is trying to predict food trends. “We talk to the chefs we work with because they usually know before the farmers. Two years ago everyone wanted kale, but not last year, and then this year everyone wants kale again. There are so many variables and challenges and farming is demanding,” she said, noting that balancing staffing with demand is also a challenge. “There was so much produce on the farm that never got harvested this year because we didn’t have time.”
Richter said that if the Inspire Session was well-received – and it appeared to be – he would like to do more. “I would love to bring this to Almaguin, Parry Sound and south to Gravenhurst and Severn Bridge, with people from those areas as well and get people to take a pause from upsetting news and see what’s positive close to home. If there’s more appetite for these events, I’d love to keep doing them and make sure they’re always free of charge.”
And he encouraged those in attendance to keep spreading the messages they heard. “If you don’t think it’s possible to farm in Muskoka, talk to Jenny. If you think you can’t paddle 130km in a day, talk to Jen and Willis. If you think an increase in minimum wage is going to put you out of business, talk to Kelly. And as teacher, having examples (for students) like Will doing what he’s done down at Waterloo is fabulous. So keep those conversations going.”
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The evening was most interesting; with the presenters so passionate about their various topics, and the audience so engaged with the information. Key was the relatively short time for the talks and the Q & A: 8 minutes and 7 minutes respectively. Unfortunately, we are so attuned to sound bites these days, that our collective attention spans have decreased significantly.
It should also be mentioned that the venue, “The Hub”, is something of which the Town should be exceedingly proud. Whether you want to rent a Wi-Fi connection with phone ($50 per annum), or spitball in a think-tank atmosphere, or so much more, it represents one-stop shopping in the finest sense.
Great idea, Matt! We definitely need this sharing of ideas . It fosters collaboration and it inspires people to create and get involved locally. That’s how we build communities. Let’s have more of these sessions !