Peace Train Canada

The goal of Peace Train Canada is the establishment of a national peace centre that would, among other things, promote the Canadian heritage of peacekeeping. What do Canadians think about that?   A Nanos poll in 2025 sought to get some answers to that question. According to Jean-Christophe Boucher, who teaches political science at the University of Calgary and who helped create the poll, the older you are the more you support that idea of peacekeeping. The younger someone is, the less they do.   In that poll, respondents were asked to rank different national defence priorities from defending the homeland to contributing to international security through things like peacekeeping.   Overall, Boucher said in an e-mail to Peace Train Canada, contributing to international stability through activities like peacekeeping ranked lowest among the four “missions” the poll analyzed. Defending Canadian territory was number one at 91%, but 66% of Canadians still said contributing...

On Nov. 20 in the House of Commons, MP Elizabeth May (Green Party, Saanich-Gulf Islands) raised concerns in about Canada’s declining role in international peacekeeping and nuclear disarmament.   She noted that Canada once led in these areas—especially through Lester B. Pearson’s historic work—but now ranks very low in peacekeeping contributions and has closed the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre.   May went on to criticize the Canadian government for refusing to participate in or observe meetings of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, arguing this contradicts the government’s stated belief in a world free of nuclear weapons.   She noted that there are grassroots efforts across Canada promoting peace, including the Peace Train.   In response, Robert Oliphant of the Liberal Party (Don Valley West), who is also the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, responded that Canada remains committed to nuclear non-proliferation through the long-standing ...

By Bernadette Wyton on behalf of Peace Train Canada. It is with deepest love for my country and all my relations around the globe that I contemplate Remembrance Day.   A legion of reveries flash across my mind. I can see my raven-haired, teenage mother driving her weapons carrier and so many other awesomely capable women working on the home front.   I see my beautiful, young uncle-in-law strapped into his leather helmet and his Sterling bomber and a photo of the beautiful German look-alike who struck him from the sky.   I see the great anguish of fighters and their families perpetually haunted by their own unbearable remembrance, day after day, of the disgusting indignities of humans violating each other in war.   The dissonant sound of sabres rattling around the world is a test of our memory. Have we forgotten our commitment to the first principles of universal peace and human rights as agreed to only 80 years ago in the United Nations Charter? Are we read...

Last November, 40 people rode VIA Rail from Vancouver to Ottawa on what they called The Peace Train to meet with Parliamentarians to  ask for the creation  of a Canadian centre for peace and a revival of Canada’s peacekeeping heritage.   In March of this year, about a dozen Peace Trainers, as they call themselves, rode Amtrak from Montreal to New York with Green Party MP Elizabeth May to  call on the Canadian government  to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.   This October, from Oct. 21 to 25, they were in Ottawa again to remind Parliamentarians of their request for an independent Canadian Centre for Peace.   Read the story in Canadian Affairs. Photo above: Peace Trainers listen as Senator Marilou McPhedran speaks at the Oct. 22 Parliamentary breakfast.  

  From Oct. 21-25, a dozen people were on the Peace Train—they had to fly there this time—to meet with Parliamentarians, attend the award ceremony for disarmament advocate Douglas Roche, attend the annual conference of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (CNANW), and have personal meetings with MPs. Here are a few reflections about that experience.   Diane Mayba, Port Alberni, B.C.   My main reasons for coming were to engage with more politicians, foster relationships with more people and groups working for the same or similar goals, increase the visibility   and capacity of the Peace Train to achieve our goals and learn from the amazing line-up of speakers at the conference.   Looking ahead, we should plan earlier for a parliamentary event next year. There is a lot of support and good will for the idea of a Peace Centre, but MPs are incredibly overworked and over taxed with so many pressing needs that they have limited time, energy and abili...

What are some next steps for Peace Train Canada? That’s the question that was posed to Michael Byers, a panelist at the Centre for International Policy Studies conference at the University of Ottawa on Oct. 24.   Theme of the conference was Canadian Security Interests and Trump 2.0.   Byers, a Professor of Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia who spoke on the topic “Arctic Security, NORAD modernization and Golden Dome,” told Peace Trainers he applauded their goal of establishing a peace centre.   "It's a fantastic idea," he said. For Byers, who is also Co-Director of the Outer Space Institute, developing a story or narrative is key to mobilizing the Canadian public against increasing militarism, including the weaponization of space. “You need to find the right hook,” he said, noting other campaigns he was worked on found ways to frame an issue that was easily understood by the Canadian public. “You need to come up with an a...