A father's charter need not be a son's charter

I'm not sure where this image originated. It's a useful image especially

after Trudeau's Liberals (that would be the Trudeau on the right) 

supported Stephen Harper's Conservatives in passing Bill  C-51.
Trudeau (the one on the left) must be very discouraged indeed.

Density in Paris

In our travels through this wonderful city, we remark at the number of cafés and restaurants, green grocers and bakeries, we find everywhere. How do all these little cafés and stores survive?


Paris, apart from all the fantastic stuff, is a city of apartments. There is an endless rotation of six floor buildings throughout the city, usually with office or retail space on the main level and apartments above. The population density is significant.













In fact, through the 20 arrondissements that make up central Paris, or Paris proper, there are over 2.2 million people, in an area of 105 square kilometres.

To compare, the City of Vancouver, or Vancouver proper, is slightly larger at 115 square kilometres and boasts a grand population of nearly 605,000.



Paris has a population density over 21,000 per square kilometre. Vancouver has only 5,250 per square kilometre. Density varies through the arrondissements of course, with some of the central districts having as few a 8,000 per square kilometre while the 18e, where we reside, has 32,000. The district with the highest density is the 11e which is centred around the Bastille as a visible marker. It has over 42,000 people per square kilometre.

As another comparison, New York City's population density only approaches half  that in Paris. The borough of Manhattan, New York's most crowded, has a density approaching 27.000 per square kilometre.





With this kind of population density, having cafés, bars, convenience stores and green grocers on almost every corner becomes easier to understand. The fact that Paris has little room for big-box stores, unlike the wide open spaces of Canadian cities, means it's easier for smaller chains, and even independents, to operate.



Density also creates a sense of neighbourhood as people don't have to get in their cars in order to do their marketing. In fact, "buying groceries" is more likely to become a daily routine, and it takes place at small businesses where people get to know each other.











Paris is home to a varied population, and like Vancouver, finding people originally from Paris is relatively rare. Most Paris residents were not born in the city. It is a surprisingly young city with lower death rates than the rest of France. Upon reaching retirement age, many leave the city to retire to the provinces, especially the south.



Another fact of life in Paris is that there are a large number of single-person family units in this city. In fact, the average size of a household in Paris is only 1.75; many households are home to one person, and they tend to be either old or young. Younger families, while they are on the increase in the city, tend to move to the ring around Paris, where rents, or home ownership costs, are lower. And where the giant stores exist along with the motorways.










And with all those singe-person apartments filling the city, cafés, bars, and stores selling convenient single-use sizes of everything from yogurt to soups, meat and fish to desserts and pastries, can exist, and hopefully, flourish. Because a large number of apartments don't have en suitelaundry (ours a washing machine but doesn't have a drier), neighbourhood dry cleaners and laundries abound.



It is difficult to compare European cities with those in Canada or the US. Our cities, perhaps apart from New York, evolved in a different way. The automobile and lack of public transit played a big part in the way cities like Vancouver and Calgary developed. The absence of political leadership and a avoidance of any sort of planning allowed private interests to seize the civic agenda.



Part of the success of Paris as a world class city, and a city that actually functions properly, is the reality of higher densities of population and the limits of entry imposed upon developers and large big-box retailers. We would be wise to demand the same from our political leaders.

Photos by Jim Murray. Copyright 2015. 

"Don't let them tell you it can't be done."

A year ago, would any of us have imagined, even in our wildest dreams, that the New Democrats of Alberta would win a provincial election? I have crazed dreams but nothing as strange as Rachel Notley winning a majority government in a province that has kept the Conservatives in power for over forty years.






Back in 2011, no one gave the NDP any thought of electing MPs in Quebec. Yet the NDP did.





Now the Liberals and Conservatives will tell us, the NDP has no hope at winning a national election; that becoming Canada's Official Opposition was just a fluke, a one-time event that won't happen again. Liberals, and their friends in the media, will remind us that they are the natural governing party; that they are entitled to govern. Again.




There are several things to remember with last night's election in Alberta:

First: it can be done, if we work together. Rachel Notley didn't make last night happen all by herself. Albertans came together to create change.

Second: only New Democrats defeat Conservatives, even in Stephen Harper's heartland. And let's be honest about the two parties on the right: Liberals and Conservatives are both parties on the right.

It was the Liberal Party that cut funding to the CBC.

It was the Liberal Party that signed the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, then did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

It is the Liberal Party of Justin Trudeau that voted for Stephen Harper's  Bill C-51.

So.

"Don't let them tell you it can't be done."  Jack Layton, 20 August 2011.

We're all in this together. For what matters.



by Jim Murray. Copyright 2015.

Sherry MacDonald appears at The Flame

Before we left for our Sojourn in Paris, Sherry appeared at The Flame in Vancouver.  In this case, the event took place on April 1st and featured eight storytellers.




The Flame is an almost-monthly event that features storytellers telling stories. The stories have to be true, personal and have some sort of consequence for the teller. And, they have to be told without any notes. Storytellers are given from 8 to 12 minutes to tell their tales.





About 150 people attended the Cottage Bistro on Main Street where this event, and others like it, happen throughout most months. The Cottage Bistro features an eclectic mix of menu items, and the usual refreshments. It's always best to arrive early for The Flame as standing-room-only often happens before the stories begin.












The Flame is open to the public though many friends and family come to support their storyteller. Others attend because it supports the art of storytelling, and is great entertainment too. Sherry had a wide swath of friends and family attending on this night too.




The genial host for the April 1st Flame was Joel Wirkkunen. He gets to refer to, and even read from, his notes.








Sherry's story was about the events around the birth of her second second Adam. It is called "Are we like the video yet?" and is from a series of stories Sherry is writing about being a single mom raising three boys.

























And when your storytelling time is finished, the applause has drifted into silence and your breathing has become normal again, it is time to relax and enjoy the storytellers who follow.



Photos by Jim Murray. Copyright 2015.

Jeem's visit to the French Senate

Within Jardin du Luxembourg rests the old Palais du Luxembourg, a majestic edifice to be sure, almost palace-like. It is here that one of Canada's newest senators recently attempted to visit.

The truth is, after a lengthy career attacking and vilifying the Canadian Senate as unrepresentative, unelected and certainly ineffective in every possible way, Jeem now finds himself a member of that august body, and ready to ring up all kinds of expenses as is the appropriate custom of senators in Canada.

To be clear, possibly more honest and certainly less deceptive, Jeem has been elected to the University Senate of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, his term beginning in September. And to further clarify the previous statement, which might be slightly misleading, though not in any way by intention, Jeem wasn't actually elected, instead he was declared "elected by acclamation." Jeem would argue that acclamation is a higher, purer form of democracy. The bothersome spectacle of campaigning for votes is, somehow, an ugly side of democracy and unworthy of true democrats. Like Jeem. Better to be appointed. By acclamation if at all possible. According to Jeem.

Having wasted no time getting on the gravy train, Jeem has journeyed to Paris, and in the true spirit of international goodwill, made his way to le Sénat. His goal, and the reason for the expense to KPU and to the taxpayers of British Columbia, is to research ways the Senate at KPU might benefit from improved relations with le Sénat of France. And of course Jeem hopes to confer with like-minded members of the Senate accustomed to even larger expense accounts than those of any senator in Canada.





All of this might have seemed a good idea in the morning when Jeem et Sherry caught the 95 bus from the 18e arrondissement.  Now, in the afternoon, the enterprise is complicated by the fact that the Palais du Luxembourg is guarded by large, burly men carrying sub-machine guns. They aren't all that keen on letting some guy with an ID badge from some unknown École polytechnique in Canada into the halls of serious second thought, or whatever the hell they do in there.

Maybe raising his voice didn't help either. Claiming diplomatic immunity when the guard asked for proper identification might not have been the right choice to make at the time. In the end, much later that night in fact, Jeem was released. He has promised never to return to le Sénat.

His claim for expenses, including legal costs, and a personal trainer while in custody, will be submitted. Of course. It's the Canadian way.

Photos by Jim Murray. Copyright 2015. 

First published at www.sojourninparis.com