Peace Train Canada

For Lynn Malinsky of Kelowna, B.C., this is her first on the Peace Train. She will be boarding it in Kamloops.   She’s making the trip because “I want to join a group that believes promoting peace is a worthy cause, given the political disruption in Alberta, the current American politics, and the state of the world in general. I want to walk the talk and increase awareness of the necessity to promote peace,” she says.   Her message to the Prime Minister is that the creation of a peace centre  “will demonstrate the government’s commitment to promoting peace and provide the opportunity for engaging Canadian citizens in increasing awareness across the country.”   Michael Elliott of Vancouver is a member of Canadian Memorial Church United Church and a member of the Vancouver Buddhist Temple. As he prepares to go on the Peace Train, he recalls a story shared by a priest at the Temple.   The priest had visited a temple that had a sign in front a sign which r...

Over 40 people from B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia will be taking the Peace Train to Ottawa to call on the federal government to give more attention to peace and peacekeeping.   Why are they going? Find some thoughts below. For Jan Teversham of Bamfield, B.C., this is the second time she has been on the Peace Train. She will be boarding the train in Vancouver.   Jan is going on the Peace Train because this is a time of great uncertainty in the world, a time when it is easy for people to feel discouraged and disheartened.   “The very process of making the effort to travel right across our country to get to the government is SOMETHING for me rather than NOTHING,” she said. “I will be with like minded people, and maybe we will get results this time! Together we can hope.”   Her message to the Prime Minister about the need for a peace centre that promotes peacekeeping is that we need a “means of solving conflict without resorting to war . . . C...

  It’s almost here! The Peace Train starts its journey on Oct. 22. A total of 42 Peace Trainers are headed to Ottawa, most of them by train from Vancouver.   Of that total, 30 are from B.C., nine from Winnipeg, three from Edmonton and one from Nova Scotia.   While there, they will attend an all-party reception with Members of Parliament sponsored by MPs Gord Johns (NDP), Elizabeth May (Greens) and Dave Epp (Conservative); visit their own MPs in their Ottawa offices; participate in a peace education workshop, a community dialogue on peace education, and a panel presentation on “Canada’s Military Spending Spree: The Real Cost to Canadians.”   A full schedule is below. People in the Ottawa area who want more information about any of the events below can contact the Peace Train at info@peacetraincanada.com   Full Schedule   Oct 22, 7-8:30 PM: Peace Train Send Off, Canadian Memorial United Church 1825 W. 16 Ave, Vancouver. Oct 23, 2-3 PM. Peace Trai...

  For decades, peacekeeping has been part of Canada’s identity — internationally and at home.   Through the Cold War years, Canada provided about 10 per cent of the 800,000 or so peacekeepers with the United Nations. In 1993, there were over 4,000 Canadian peacekeepers deployed around the world. Altogether, over 125,000 Canadians have served with the United Nations as peacekeepers since the 1950s.   Today, however, there are only about 60 Canadians serving as peacekeepers, and the federal government is reducing the number of missions where they serve — a decision made to “better align CAF resources with current defence priorities,” according to the Department of National Defence.   On Sept. 16, defence experts convened to further explore this shift in peacekeeping. Titled “A Middle Power Adrift? Canada and the Future of Peacekeeping,” the Barton Dialogues webinar brought together experts to discuss the challenges and evolution of peacekeeping in a fragmented an...

In October, the Peace Train will be in Ottawa again to promote the idea of the creation of a national peace centre.   As part of that trip, it once again wants to present a petition to Parliament about that idea.   You can help by signing the petition, and by getting others to sign it, too. (You can read the petition below.)   How it Works   The 2026 petition is a three-page document. It can be found here.   All three pages should be printed and stapled together. The first page has the “whereas” clauses on it and must be on top when stapling.   A person must sign, not print their name.   Although only 25 are required to complete a petition, gather at least  5 or 10 more as several signatures may be disqualified (for example when someone prints instead of signing their name).   If you want to keep collecting signatures after the first 3 pages are full, print another 3-page set and continue.   When you have finished colle...

By Douglas Roche  Mark Carney is an internationally acclaimed central banker, a man of ideas who raises the subject of values in our society, a visionary who has a prescription for a ruptured world, and a tactician who stands up to the menacing U.S. president, Donald Trump.   He brings to his office unique credentials as governor of two central banks and as an adviser to the U.N. secretary-general. I’ve watched 10 prime ministers since I entered politics in 1972 and cannot recall one occupant of the office who drives himself as hard as Carney does. His schedule, as he admits, is “relentless.”   Why, then, is my applause restrained?   I’ve spent months exploring this question for my upcoming book, Values/Chaos: Discovering Mark Carney and Canada’s Role in a Ruptured World. The core reason for my misgiving is that Carney has elevated military might through arms over diplomacy as the route to peace.   The entire United Nations structure, built on the ashes ...