September 11, 2009 — An age cap reversed

Featured interviews:

• Ted Horton: vice-president university affairs at the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa — [Download] [iTunes]
• Fiona Sant: organizer of the inaugural Sandy Hill community garage sale — [Download] [iTunes]

Today on the show, we spoke with Ted Horton about the efforts that Ottawa’s student community made to lobby city councillors to remove the age limit that was slapped on student bus passes on July 1. Only a couple of days after council ended up both reconsidering anf then repealing the measure on Sept. 9 (with unanimous support), Ted came on the show and talked about how it all went down.

We also talked to Fiona Sant, the organizer of the inaugural Sandy Hill community garage sale. Although she refused to be as brash and arrogant as I would have hoped, we talk about how the garage sale will measure up against its formidable opponent in the Glebe.

July 10, 2009 – How to make a difference at City Hall

Featured guests:

• Frank Appleyard: employee at the University of Ottawa’s new Global and Community Service Office [Download] [iTunes]
• Sabrina Bowman: coordinator of Ecology Ottawa [Download] [iTunes]
• Shawn Menard: president of the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association [Download] [iTunes]
• Carl Meyer: editor at Daily Publinet and political blogger [Download] [iTunes]
• Carl Meyer and Ted Horton: commentators on social media and its uses in local communities [Download] [iTunes]

As you can tell, we stepped away from the ‘how to make a difference’ discussion at both ends of the show. In the beginning, we spoke with Frank Appleyard about the University of Ottawa’s efforts to send its students on community-service missions around the world. Sabrina Bowman and Shawn Menard both shed some light on what regular citizens can do to get the attention of the power brokers in municipal halls of power.

And then Carl Meyer and Ted Horton came on the show. Carl and I yammered on about federal politics for a few minutes, as we are wont to do. And then Ted joined and we talked about the usefulness of Twitter and other social media at the community level. How can it help people on a day-to-day basis? Listen in.

Oh man, and I almost forgot the most important part. The show lasted for two hours this week. We played a bunch of Sedatives, a local band that just played Bluesfest. And then we threw in some K’naan for good measure.

As usual, thanks to everyone who contributed to the show.