In This Issue:

• Results from the Federal AGM.
• Lansdowne Park and participating in our democracy

Hello everyone!  I’m happy to report that the federal AGM was a resounding success – full details on the AGM are below.  But the first item I’d like to talk to you about is the upcoming vote about Lansdowne Park that City Council will be holding this Friday.

Participatory Democracy and Lansdowne Park

On Friday, City Council will be voting on whether or not to continue working on the Lansdowne Partnership Plan.  Many groups have come out against the current proposal for a variety of reasons – but the poor process that the City has followed since cancelling the open design competition is often cited as a reason to turn down the current proposal.

Elizabeth May states, “The commitment of public funds must be based on a fair and competitive transparent process at all levels of government, because whenever this doesn’t happen we can not be assured the public interest has been properly served.  It is my hope that the City Council of Ottawa will reinitiate a fair and competitive public process for the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park.  It is the fair thing to do.”

James O’Grady and I have created the letsgetitright.ca website to allow you to quickly send your opinion on the plan for Lansdowne to the Mayor, City Council and to the Media.  Whether you are for or against the current plan, we would invite you to participate in this debate.

Councillors respond to public input and this is the time to get engaged to save Lansdowne Park. Here’s how you can get involved:

• Go to letsgetitright.ca and submit your opinion.  We’ll send it to the City automatically.
• Attend the rally at City Hall on Friday the 13th at noon.
• Encourage your friends and family to participate as well.
• Learn more about the proposal and also visit these websites: stoplansdownemall.ca, friendsoflansdownepark.ca, ottawa.ca

Annual General Meeting Results

On November 4th an AGM was held for the Federal EDA in Ottawa Centre.  As hoped we achieved all of our objectives!  First off, a new executive has been elected to manage the EDA for 2009-2010.  Thank you to everyone who stepped forward for this year – and thank you as well to everyone who volunteered so much on the previous executive board.

• Judy Field, Member At Large
• Michael D’Costa, Financial Agent
• Evan Hughes, Member At Large
• Dylan Linegar, Secretary
• Paul Merriam, Membership
• Kevin O’Donnell, Chief Executive Officer

The next goal was to adopt a new constitution then attempt to rename the EDA.  We succeeded in adopting the new constitution, but would have needed 90% of members to attend the meeting to rename ourselves.  But since 94% of members present supported the motion to rename the EDA, the executive will ask Federal Council to pass a motion to make the changes for us.

Next up was a great discussion with Mike Schreiner, the next leader of the Green Party of Ontario.  We had hoped to bring you a video of his talk but the lighting was poor and it didn’t work out.  Mike is an engaging speaker and he has a plan for bringing in great results in 2011.

And finally – thank you to all those who donated at the AGM!

Links and Information

• Donate to the Ottawa Centre Greens
• Join the Green Party of Canada
• Join the Green Party of Ontario
• Register as a volunteer in Ottawa Centre
• Follow us on Twitter: @ottawactrgreens and please retweet!
• Follow us on Facebook: Ottawa Centre Greens