SCARP's next lunchtime dialogue is with Andrea Reimer.

About the Speaker: "As a long time supporter of sustainability, community economic development and social justice, I volunteer with many community organizations. Another passion is my work as the Executive Director of the Wilderness Committee, Canada’s largest membership-based wilderness preservation organization. I'm also the founder and principle of a consulting firm, Strait Communications, which provides graphic design, communications & strategic planning to clients in the non-profit and public sectors as well as socially responsible businesses.

In 2002, I became the first person to be elected to a school board in Canada under the Green Party banner which was an incredible but sometimes frightening experience! You can read about it in my archived blog "Chronicles of a Rookie Green School Trustee". 

As a school trustee, I sat on a whole bunch of committees including: Finance, Budget, Education & Student Services, Modern Languages and Advocacy. In addition I was the board’s liaison to the Vancouver Food Policy Council and an alternate delegate to both the special needs consortium and the One Day program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the city. 

In 2008 I left the Green Party to support Gregor Robertson's bid for mayor, co-chairing his campaign to be nominated for Vision Vancouver. 11 months, two nominations and one election later, I'm now a Vancouver City Councillor. I ran on a campaign of three big ideas: Greenest City on Earth, a City of Compassion and Opportunity and a City of Strong Neighbourhoods. I know what you're thinking - how hard can that be?

In the rest of my spare time (yes mom, that is a joke), I do advocacy for electoral reforms that produce fairer electoral results and remove barriers to the election of women, write the occasional column and do public speaking engagements on topics ranging from province-wide 2005 municipal election results for CBC TV to being a Go Green Challenge judge for CKNW Radio. In 2007 I was chosen to be trained by Al Gore to deliver his An Inconvenient Truth powerpoint presentation to local audiences. 40 + venues and 10,000 people later, I've learned a lot about climate, people and powerpoint."  

 http://andreareimer.typepad.com/about.html