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Talk:Republicanism in Canada

Merge Proposal
I propose merging Debate on the monarchy in Canada into this page, Republicanism in Canada. Both pages have content relevant to each other, and lend context to each other's subjects. Seems to me that it doesn't make sense to have separate pages. TDK1881 (talk) 01:53, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Opinion polling
User:Miesianiacal believes that the section on opinion polling is POV and had tagged it as such (see Republicanism_in_Canada. His preference is either to remove the section entirely or replace it with "Polls have been conducted on the subject of abolition of the Canadian Crown." My view is this is a meaningless statement as it only states that polling occurred without mentioning what the polling shows. I have asked him to suggest wording that actually references the polling results but he has been unwilling to do this and said instead the entire section should be removed. I maintain that polls showing support for a republic are relevant to an article on republicanism.

Is the section NPOV? If so, how can it be improved? Wellington Bay (talk) 16:37, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The section shouldn't be there at all. Any mention of polls should be stiched into the broader text, as it is at Monarchism in Canada. But, cherrypicking polls to back up a personal view is contrary to WP:NPOV and WP:OR. -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  17:20, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The polls are not cherry picked, they are the most recent polls available and the only ones I'm aware of that have been taken during the reign of King Charles. If there are other polls taken in the past two years please post a link to them and they can be included. Wellington Bay (talk) 17:39, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * You are inserting a claim that the majority of Canadians want a republic and a referendum, when, 1) only those who're polled give responses and 2) the sources you provide don't necessarily back up what you're trying to assert. What the pollsters actually say is, "Canadians are conflicted on the future role of the monarchy" (about results of a poll that uses the inaccurate and loaded terms "British monarchy", "monarchy as our head of state", "formal ties", "sever ties", "traditions like Canada’s relationship with the monarchy", "prefer a Canadian head of state", etc); "Canadians are very much split on their opinions when it comes to the monarchy"; while "(54%) agree (20% strongly/33% somewhat) that now that Queen Elizabeth II’s reign has ended, Canada should end its formal ties to the British monarchy", "a majority (55%) agrees (17% strongly/38% somewhat) that the constitutional monarchy helps to define Canadian identity and should continue to be our form of government"; "for one thing, royal fortunes rise and fall"; "thirty-one per cent think the monarchy is actually harmful for Canada, 18 per cent thing it is beneficial, but a solid 46 per cent think it is neutral"; "Canadians were asked if they agree that 'in an ideal world we wouldn't have the monarchy in Canada, but there are more important things for the country to deal with,' a stonking 79 per cent agreed, including 85 per cent of people who would vote to abolish"; "47% Canadians said they would vote to become a republic in a referendum tomorrow" (47% is not a majority). That's why there's an extensive section at Debate on the monarchy in Canada to cover all the biases, inconsistencies, and contradictions that you're not presenting here (or in any of the other two articles you inserted the exact same paragraph). -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  18:00, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * ":only those who're polled give responses" - that is how polling works. That's also why I used the word "suggests". As long as the poll is conducted with a random sample of the population and the sample is of a statistically significant size then it is considered valid, and a poll of 1000 people is a statistically significant sample size yielding a poll that "is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20." Further I am not "inserting a claim that the majority of Canadians want a republic and a referendum". The Ipsos poll found that "54% Say Canada Should End Ties to Monarchy". 54% is a majority. Wellington Bay (talk) 18:21, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I've already outlined the mass of information you didn't insert here. If you insist on keeping your paragraph in the article, the rest of the poll info will have to be added to balance and give full context. Then you'll have to justify why this article should repeat, in full, the same info already covered at Debate on the monarchy in Canada. -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  18:40, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * "Polls conducted on the subject of abolition of the Canadian Crown in 2022 and 2023, following the accession of Charles III, suggested that a majority of Canadians think there should be a referendum on the future of the monarchy and that more Canadians favour becoming a republic than do retaining the monarchy" is an accurate and neutral summary. If you insist we can have an RFC on the issue. Wellington Bay (talk) 19:52, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The word "suggested" alone communicates that the whole is an interpretation. And, again, the interpretation leaves out a lot of facts, such as:
 * Forty one per cent finding the monarchy unfavourable is not a majority
 * Forty seven per cent stating they would vote to abolish the Crown is not a majority
 * Forty per cent saying they would vote for abolition today is not a majority
 * Asking about "sever[ing] ties" with the "British monarchy" is a leading question with inaccurate phrasing
 * Fifty five per cent agreeing the monarchy helps define Canadian identity and ought to remain Canada's form of government is not a majority in favour of Canada becoming a republic
 * Seventy nine per cent agreeing there're more important issues to deal with doesn't indicate an eagerness for change
 * There's also the question of why would this article mention only polls conducted in 2022 and 2023?
 * A more neutral wording would be, polls on the Canadian monarchy have been regularly conducted since the 1990s, showing an increasing disaffection with the monarchy, but, also internal contradictions in specific poll results. In regard to the polling of Canadians, the Lord Ashcroft pointed out in 2023 that "royal fortunes rise and fall." The polls themselves have been accused of using "inconsistent and sometimes ambiguous wording" and monarchists and republicans have objected to the way some questions are worded. Both groups also note, and it has been confirmed by polls, that Canadians are not well educated about the monarchy and its role.
 * That one paragraph doesn't require its own section, either. -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  16:16, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * "Polls suggest" is my preferred wording based on what I learned in stats class years ago as polling is always an estimation and no poll is 100% accurate but has a margin of error depending on the sample size, for instance, - "a margin of error of plus or minis 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20" which is why I prefer using a term like "suggest" rather than stating a poll result with more definitive languagge - but this is the case with all polls, not just the polls being cited here so you're reading far too much into my word choice. Looking at various reportage of polling results the more usual wording is "polls show" or "According to a poll by [name of polling firm] x% of respondents say y". Wellington Bay (talk) 17:08, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Are you fine with the proposed wording? -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  21:32, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I haven't had time to look at all your sources - but I don't see the relevance of Boyce (2008) to polls taken in the 2020s. Applying Boyce to them is WP:SYNTH. Indeed, trying to make sweeping statements about the last 30 years appears to also be a WP:SYNTH violation. You also seem to be cherry picking Ashcroft. You pull out the quote "royal fortunes rise and fall" but ignore the main part of his statement "Older people tend to be more attached to the monarchy, so there is a view that as the generations pass, the connection between their country and the U.K. and its institutions will come to seem ever more remote". I don't think your summary is a fair representation of what the Post article actually says or even what Ashcroft says. I mean you are trying to mitigate the 2023 poll by referring to the Boyce and Ekos sources from decades earlier and trying to apply it to the most recent poll. Again, that's clearly SYNTH. This isn't supposed to be an argumentative essay but you appear to be approaching it as such. Wellington Bay (talk) 23:07, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * That's not a correct interpretation of WP:SYNTH. Regardless, why do you feel it's of service to readers to mention only polls from 2022 and 2023, when polls have been conducted since the 1970s, at least? -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  23:23, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I disagree. You mention the Ashcroft poll (in passing), and then mitigate it with sources that are about much earlier polls. You follow Ashcroft with these statements: "The polls themselves have been accused of using "inconsistent and sometimes ambiguous wording"[3] and monarchists and republicans have objected to the way some questions are worded" as if these are statements about the 2023 poll, but in fact the statements are about polls that were taken decades earlier and of course, the sources do not actually refer to the 2023 poll because they predate it by decades. Taking old statements and treating them as if they apply to more recent events is clearly synthesis because it is you who are arguing that the 2023 poll using "ambiguous wording" etc, not the sources. Moreover, your proposed wording completely ignores the actual findings of the poll, namely: "54 per cent majority thinks Canada would vote to become a republic. A mere 18 per cent thinks Canada would vote to remain a constitutional monarchy. But asked how they would vote today (the poll of more than 2,000 Canadians was taken in February and March), and the republican impulse weakens. Twenty-three per cent would vote to keep the king, and 47 per cent would vote to abolish." Your proposed wording goes far further than "burying the lede" - it completely erases it. The fact that "Twenty-three per cent would vote to keep the king, and 47 per cent would vote to abolish" appears nowhere in your wording. Wellington Bay (talk) 23:38, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * This reads as if poll on the subject are totally unreliable and not worth discussing at all. I fail to see how this is anywhere close to NPOV—blindlynx 22:23, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 * All polls have a margin of error. Around 1,000 is the typical sample size for a credible scientific poll and the margin of error would generally be plus or minus 3 percent 19 times out of 20. That's not POV, nor is it "totally unreliable", it's how scientific polling works and its an accepted method of research in social sciences. In fact, given that the poll cited above had a sample size of 2,000 it's actually considered more accurate than typical opinion polls. Please see Opinion_poll. Now if you want to propose that Wikipedia amend its Reliable sources policy so that scientific public opinion polls should be considered not to meet the standards of reliability for Wikipedia and that they therefore should be excluded from articles, you can do so, but given that they are an accepted device in social sciences and are reported on in high-quality newspaper, journals, etc I think you'd have difficulty getting such a policy passed. Wellington Bay (talk) 22:59, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm replying to the 'neutral' wording above, not to your comment. I completely agree with you that using old sources to discuss recent poll is inappropriate—blindlynx 22:40, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
 * You take issue with the word "majority" but I think you misread what the passage says. It doesn't say a majority of Canadians want to abolish the monarchy, it says "a majority of Canadians think there should be a referendum on the future of the monarchy" and indeed according to IPSOS "A majority (58%) of Canadians agree (20%/38% somewhat) that Justin Trudeau should hold a referendum on the future of the monarchy in Canada" (58% 'is a majority). The rest of the section says "more Canadians favour becoming a republic than do retaining the monarchy" and this is also correct. It does not say a majority it says more Canadians favour becoming a republic than not. I don't see the point of your list above of what is not a majority since the passage does not state otherwise, it is very specific that the term majority applies to the proportion of Canadians who think there should be a referendum. Wellington Bay (talk) 02:25, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

 * The article should include the polls and I think it's useful to set them apart in a section of their own, otherwise they will be lost among the general text. I would certainly expect an article on a political movement to give some indication of how popular that movement is. Celia Homeford (talk) 10:00, 20 March 2024 (UTC)
 * This article defiantly needs a table or chart with polling data, having that info just in prose isn't great—blindlynx 22:47, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Include the latest polls, fwiw. Besides, the Supreme Court has already made it quite clear, that the monarchy in Canada can only be abolished, via approval from the federal Parliament & all ten provincial legislatures. GoodDay (talk) 20:35, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

 * Yes. I think inclusion of reliable polling on whether Canadians support the maintenance of the monarchy or it abolition is appropriate, where properly balanced (with contradicting polls). Polling on whether Candians want a referendum on it seems inappropriate though because that is not a legal way to accomplish abolition, and focusing on a referendum suggests it is.-- Darryl Kerrigan (talk) 04:16, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Referenda have been used in the past to decide on Constitutional amendments in Canada eg the Charlottetown Accord. They are not required by the Constitution's amending formula but it's incorrect to say they are not legal. In fact, a referendum would be required as "since the Meech Lake Accord was negotiated behind closed doors in 1990, several provinces have passed legislation requiring provincial referenda to ratify significant changes to the Constitution" which is why a referendum was held on the Charlottetown Accord. Wellington Bay (talk) 09:29, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

 * There's no opposition to polling being included. The question is how to include it; both where in the article to put it (I believe it doesn't need its own section; like it doesn't at Monarchism in Canada) and how to word it. It's still entirely unclear why WB wants only the 2022-2023 polls to be mentioned; they're not the only polls ever conducted. I agree with you that a more balanced and brief summary of polling overall is deeded; ie the numbers vary and are often internally self-contradictory. We have reliable sources supporting that and a whole section at Debate on the monarchy in Canada to expand on it. -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  14:04, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

 * "It's still entirely unclear why WB wants only the 2022-2023 polls to be mentioned; they're not the only polls ever conducted" - I think I've said this before and that it's also self-evident: because they're the most recent and the most relevant polls and because there's a new reign. There's also no need to repeat the entire polling section from Debate on the monarchy in Canada as there is a link to that page and section. If you want to add a second paragraph about earlier polls we can discuss that but rather than burying the lede at the bottom of a lengthy recounting of polls from the past 50 years it makes more sense to lead with the polls from Charles' reign before contrasting them with polls from his mother's reign. Wellington Bay (talk) 14:39, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

How about we include some secondary sources rather than arguing about polls: With the turn of the 21st century, calls to abolish the Canadian monarchy have resurged and various polls indicate that a majority of Canadians would prefer a Canadian head of state (Spicer 2007; Hepburn 2012; Conacher 2013). Monarchy advocates argue for its continued relevance in parliamentary function and as a symbol of Canadian identity and values. While critics challenge these claims, the mainstream debate on both sides of this issue is devoid of diverse perspectives. In particular, concerns of Canadians of colour are conspicuously absent. ; Most Canadians want to drop monarchy ; An Angus Reid opinion poll in April revealed that 51 per cent of respondents from across the country want to abolish the monarchy, a steep rise from previous years. .	There's no shortage of articles talking about this, both recent and older ones—blindlynx 14:55, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Who are Conacher, Hepburn, and Spicer? What works of theirs are you referencing? They're not in this article or Debate on the monarchy in Canada.
 * We need to be careful about using news reports with eye-catching headlines instead of more detailed analysis; Boyce and Brean, for example.
 * Boyce says nothing about calls for abolishing the Canadian monarchy "resurging" at the turn of the 20th century. In fact, he says only a "near majority of Canadians" favour abolition of the Crown and "a 2005 IPSOS Reid poll [...] found that 79 per cent supported constitutional monarchy, with 62 per cent believing it defined Canadian identity [...] Support for abolition in a 2002 EKOS poll ranged from 54 per cent in Quebec to only 25 per cent in the prairies", which is quite the opposite of what's in your proposed wording. Boyce does state "we have no fool-proof guide to the intensity of public disatisfaction with the constitutional status quo in Canada" and claims polls since the 1990s show "a steady increase in the number of Canadians disaffected with the monarchy", but, at the same time, supports what I've been saying about variations and contradictions, noting "marked fluctuations" and "internal contradictions" (his words) in poll results since the '90s and attributing them to "ignorance or poorly worded questions", which is also noteworthy when considering poll results.
 * Brean's own headline is, in part, "Canadians won't abolish the monarchy". He writes that the Ashcroft poll found "47 per cent would vote to abolish" if voting in a referendum "today", "40 per cent would vote for abolition" in a referendum "tomorrow", and it illustrates "that Canadians generally accept the monarchy as not 'ideal,' but as the way it is."
 * One can lead off a paragraph about polling in this article with the 2022 and 2023 polls. But, DK is correct to ask what relevance a referendum has to replicanism (no one said only republicans favour a referendum; it's information suited to Debate on the monarchy in Canada) and "more Canadians favour becoming a republic than do retaining the monarchy" is based on what? No poll asks about a republic; they either use the leading wording "cut ties with the British monarchy" or suggest an elected head of state. One poll that found 51% in favour of "cutting ties with the British monarchy" was negated by another poll concluding 47% wanted to keep those "ties". One poll determined only 36% preferred an elected head of state and another determined 55% agreed the monarchy should remain Canada's form of government and Canada’s "relationship with the monarchy" is useful. Even within the 2022-2023 polls there's complexity that needs to be addressed to avoid violating WP:NPOV.
 * I'd say just draw some key bits of information from Boyce and Brean and leave the rest up to Debate on the monarchy in Canada. -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  05:18, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
 * It's a quote and i urge you to read the paper it's from.
 * What years are those polls from? It seems like the 51% figure is from 2022 Angus Reid poll: the 47% figure is (best i can tell) from a 2005 TSC poll; 36% from a 2010 poll by Angus Reid; and i have no idea where you got the 55%?—blindlynx 23:01, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
 * What is a quote?
 * All the polls I mentioned just above are covered in Debate on the monarchy in Canada. -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  15:38, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * "With the turn of the 21st century, calls to abolish the Canadian monarchy have resurged and various polls indicate that a majority of Canadians would prefer a Canadian head of state (Spicer 2007; Hepburn 2012; Conacher 2013). Monarchy advocates argue for its continued relevance in parliamentary function and as a symbol of Canadian identity and values. While critics challenge these claims, the mainstream debate on both sides of this issue is devoid of diverse perspectives. In particular, concerns of Canadians of colour are conspicuously absent." is a quote from this paper
 * Surely you see how a poll cannot be 'negated by another poll' conducted 17 years earlier!? —blindlynx 17:05, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Also the 55% poll comes from the 2022 ipsos poll doesn't just show Canadians think 'the constitutional monarchy should remain Canada's form of government' but also shows around 57% want to get rid of the british monarchy in Canada which certainly bears mentioning given the sharp divide between in opinion of the Canadian institution and it's current incumbent family—blindlynx 17:07, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * We should have an academic analysis of these polls not to support themselves..... pure junk until we get academic assessments. Moxy 🍁 19:30, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * We can include polling reported in secondary sources. We should avoid doing our own meta-analysis as that gets us into WP:SYNTH territory. Wellington Bay (talk) 19:37, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Exactly, to be clear i think we should report what polls say not pick out single questions in them or claim polls negate each other.
 * A quick scan of wiki library hasn't turned up any recent academic articles analyzing polls but general but i'm sure they're out there, we just have to find them—blindlynx 20:38, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the link, but, I don't see Hepburn, Spicer, or Conacher mentioned anywere on that page. It's a pretty blatantly biased source. But, it meets WP:RS (I think). So, we could add what Sajnani thinks about "resurgences". It doesn't eliminate Boyce and Brean, though.
 * I made no mention of a poll from 17 years earlier negating any other poll. I said the response to one poll question asked in 2022 was negated by the response to another poll question asked in 2022, showing the claim "[polls in 2022 and 2023 show] more Canadians favour becoming a republic than do retaining the monarchy" is false. It's also indeed WP:SYNTH.
 * The issue right now is WB wants focus on polls in 2022 and 2023, but, we don't have academic analysis of those polls; only of one poll--the Ashcroft one. I still hold we should compose one short paragraph about polling overall, using the outside analysis we have, which cover the last 20 years. Something like: Polls on the Canadian monarchy, which have been accused of being poorly worded,  have been regularly conducted since the 1990s. Those since 2000 have showed an increasing disaffection with the monarchy, but, also oscillations and internal contradictions, giving no certainty on the level of disaffection with the status quo. Citizens for a Canadian Republic also noted, and it has been confirmed by polls, that Canadians are not well educated about the monarchy and its role.   --  ₪   MIESIANIACAL  21:26, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Look if you have a better recent source i would love to see it, you have access to the whole Sajnani paper through wiki library, it's not perfect but it is an example of a recent peer reviewed academic source making a claim and we should find more sources like it.
 * One poll that found 51% in favour of "cutting ties with the British monarchy" was negated by another poll concluding 47% wanted to keep those "ties". which polls are you talking about here? Best i can tell those numbers come from the 2022 Angus Reid poll and the 2005 TSC poll which are 17 years apart!
 * Implying that polls being seen as poorly worded by interest groups or Canadians level of understanding of the monarchy effects the results of polls without a source saying that is also synth btw. It would be better to say what those groups objections are and make it clear we don't know that this effects public opinion unless we have a RS saying so—blindlynx 22:02, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * It's not an implication. It's a reliably sourced statement and not sourced solely to interest groups (one of which is the only republican interest group in Canada, which is pretty relevant to this article). If you don't like that sentence, it can be left out. Or CCR's objection to wording, specifically, can be added in with its statement about Canadians being generally unaware of civics.
 * I told you both poll questions came from 2022 polls. It's irrelevant, anyway, now it seems we've agreed not to engage in WP:SYNTH. -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  22:54, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * i think the most we should say is just 'Polls since 2000 have showed an increasing disaffection with the monarchy, but, also oscillations and internal contradictions, giving no certainty on the level of disaffection with the status quo.' with refs and such link it to Debate on the monarchy in Canada and clean up that article—blindlynx 12:53, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I'd support that. I think it's a succinct, fair, and clear "preface" of sorts to the full section at Debate on the monarchy in Canada. -- ₪   MIESIANIACAL  14:59, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Too vague. "Increasing disaffection" could mean a rise from 10% to 20% when in fact every recent poll shows more people opposed to having a monarchy than in favour. Discussing polls without actually citing numbers is not very helpful

What is wrong with the current passage?:

 * ''Polls conducted on the subject of abolition of the Canadian Crown in 2022 and 2023, following the accession of Charles III, stated that 58% of Canadians think there should be a referendum on the future of the monarchy and between 40% and 54% of Canadians favour becoming a republic. However, pollster Michael Ashcroft cautioned that "for change to happen in Canada, the issue would have to find its way to the top of the political agenda. It’s hard to see what could be the catalyst for that to happen.”

Wellington Bay (talk) 13:31, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

 * I guess the POV issue is that there's a lot of criticism of the polls? So a line about that might fix it, but in all honesty i don't see how complaints about wording make a difference to the accuracy of polls. I don't really see what the POV is past that—blindlynx 19:18, 13 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Realistically i think Debate on the monarchy in Canada is a dumpster fire of OR and SYNTH that needs our attention more and once we have a handle on that we can worry about the polls section here—blindlynx 19:20, 13 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I reviewed much of this debate and a lot of the support for inclusion of any of these polls seem to employ plenty of weasel words that overemphasize the importance of the polls, ando violates WP:POV andWP:WEIGHT. I don't really see much purpose beyond acknowledging that there is some disagreement on the topic, with support for both sides. Lostsandwich (talk) 08:57, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Republicanism in Canada


text:
Talk:Rosario (disambiguation)

Rosario Marin?
Why list Rosario Marin? I would think she would seldom be referred to by her first name alone. -- Jmabel | Talk 01:54, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

Spanish vs Italian Given Names
I know that there currently aren't any famous Italians with the name Rosario but it should be of note that while the Spanish name is Feminine the Italian name is Masculine. 146.145.215.131 14:18, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Rosario (disambiguation)


text: User talk:65.10.241.123

title: User talk:65.10.241.123


text:
Enoch Pratt

Enoch Pratt (September 10, 1808 – September 17, 1896) was an American businessman in Baltimore, Maryland. Pratt was also a committed active Unitarian, and a philanthropist. He is best known for his donations to establish the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and expanding the former Sheppard Asylum to become The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, (now known as the Sheppard-Pratt Hospital for mental health and psychiatric research), located north of the city in western Towson, county seat of Baltimore County. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he moved south to the Chesapeake Bay area and became devoted to the civic interests of the city of Baltimore. He earned his fortune as an owner of business interests beginning in the 1830s originally as a hardware wholesaler, and later expanding into railroads, banking and finance, iron works, and steamship lines and other transportation companies.

Early life
Born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, Enoch Pratt was the second of eight children born to Isaac and Naomi (née Keith) Pratt. A successful businessman, Isaac Pratt managed several businesses, including a sawmill, general store, wholesale hardware. The young Enoch was educated at the former Bridgewater Academy in the neighboring town of Bridgewater, Massachusetts's Town Common. After graduating, at the age of 15, Enoch Pratt began his first job in business as a clerk in a Boston hardware establishment.

In 1831, Pratt moved to Baltimore with $150 to launch his own wholesale iron hardware business, Enoch Pratt & Brothers at 23-25 South Charles Street, between East Baltimore and German (now Redwood) Streets. The business proved successful, and six years later, Pratt married Maria Louisa Hyde (1818–1913), the daughter of Samuel G. and Catherine Hyde, whom he met at his church on August 1, 1837. Their marriage was happy, but they were unable to have children.

Business career
With his successful hardware business, Pratt became involved in other businesses as vice president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, who built their southern terminal in 1849-1850 at the President Street Station, at President and Fleet Streets, east of the harbor "basin" (today's Inner Harbor). He also served as president of the National Farmers' and Planters' Bank of Baltimore, and was the controlling stockholder in the Maryland Steamboat Company. In 1851, Pratt and his partner invested in western Maryland coal mines and iron yards in the expanding and developing industrial and commercial Baltimore neighborhood of Canton. They made their own merchandise, thereby ending their dependence on northern manufacturers. From 1860 until his death in 1896, he was the president of the National Farmers' and Planters' Bank of Baltimore. Pratt also became president of the Baltimore Clearing House and the Maryland Bankers' Association, in addition to establishing a role in several transportation companies. He was also a director for three other railroads, including the famous Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He was a contemporary and associate of philanthropist Thomas Kelso (1784-1878). They served together on the board of the P.W. & B. Railroad Company.

Philanthropy
During his early years as a businessman, Pratt's philanthropy started with donations to his church, the First Independent Church of Baltimore (later the First Unitarian Church (Unitarian and Universalist), at North Charles and West Franklin Streets, where he served as a trustee for over 40 years. He paid off several of the congregation's large debts, bought a new organ, and financed significant remodeling of the church in the 1890s. Other early philanthropy included his patronage of the artist Edward Sheffield Bartholomew, Pratt commissioned many public sculptures and memorials throughout Baltimore, including the statue of George Washington erected in the city's new first and largest park of Druid Hill Park, acquired by the city in 1860, and laid out by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Pratt gave much of his time and wealth to Baltimore's cultural and charitable institutions. He served as a trustee of the Peabody Institute. He founded the "House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children" which he offered on his former farm property at Cheltenham (in Prince George's County), and the Maryland School for the Deaf and Dumb located at Frederick on South Market Street. In 1865, he donated a free school and public library (The Pratt Free School in 1856, and further endowed upon its 1865 incorporation - which later became a public grammar school preparing students for advancement to the local Middleborough High School, founded 1873), to his hometown of Middleborough in Massachusetts.

He died on September 17, 1896, at his summer residence "Tivoli", a mansion of Italianate style which he bought in 1870, off Woodbourne Avenue in northeast Baltimore.

Enoch Pratt Free Library
Pratt is best known for his establishment of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. Many residents of the city in late 1881 speculated what was being planned for the excavations going on in the north side of West Mulberry Street, by Cathedral Street, near the old Baltimore Cathedral in the tony Mount Vernon-Belvedere-Mount Royal neighborhood, north of the business district on Cathedral Hill. The mystery was explained when on January 21, 1882, in a letter addressed to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, Pratt offered a gift of a central library, four branch libraries (with two additional ones to be constructed shortly thereafter), and a financial endowment of (U.S.) $1,058,333. Further, he requested that to Mayor William Pinkney Whyte and the Council continue an annual appropriation to the new library system and support it in the years to come to supplement the interest and benefits accumulating from the principal of his bequest. His intention was to establish a library that "shall be for all, rich and poor without distinction of race or color, who, when properly accredited, can take out the books if they will handle them carefully and return them." The grant was accepted by the municipal government, approved by the General Assembly of Maryland with some enabling legislation, and approved by the city voters later that year in an election/referendum on October 25, 1882. After four years of plans, construction and the hiring of staff with the purchasing of many books, the new library was ready to be opened in January 1886 with some appropriate addresses at ceremonies at the nearby luxurious auditorium of the Academy of Music on North Howard Street (between West Centre and West Franklin Streets), and opened to new patrons and business at the beginning of February 1886.

Sheppard Asylum
Pratt left the vast majority of his wealth ($2 million of his $2.5 million) to supplement the earlier endowment of The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, (as it was later renamed, today it is titled "Sheppard Pratt Health System," giving equal weight to both generous co-founders). Pratt was impressed by the trustees' frugal handling of the original founder's - Moses Sheppard, (1771/1773?-1857), endowment from 1857. "They are the only Board of Trustees in Baltimore," said Pratt, "who have carried out exactly the directions of the founder." Pratt's bequest was used to complete construction of the old Moses Sheppard Asylum, enlarge the facility to house 200 additional patients at its country campus in western Towson, further north of the city off (North) Charles Street Avenue in suburban Baltimore County, at the old "Mount Airy Farm" of Baltimore merchant Thomas Poultney, which they purchased in 1858 and began construction two years later, however not opening until 1891, trying to remain faithful to the original directions to serve the indigent.

Enoch Pratt Mansion / Maryland Historical Society
Enoch Pratt's city townhouse/mansion located at 201 West Monument Street (southwest corner with Park Avenue in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, purchased in 1847). The Pratt mansion was occupied by his wife Maria Louisa Hyde Pratt until her death in 1913.

In 1919, the West Monument Street townhouse/mansion was gifted to the Historical Society by Mary Washington Keyser, whose husband was a longtime Md.H.S. member. A research library, archives, and underground storage stacks were constructed in the following decade at the southern rear of the mansion replacing the former carriage house.

Legacy
Famous Scottish-born steel industrialist, millionaire, and noted philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) said that "Pratt was my guide and inspiration" remembering the time of several days that he spent in Baltimore at Pratt's house on West Monument Street, touring the new Free Library and conversing with Pratt and his employees and even the citizens/patrons about their mutual ideas during his visit in March 1890.

title: Enoch Pratt


text:
Talk:Greg Malone (actor)

Untitled
Okay, were he and Sexton lovers or just friends/colleagues? I'm pretty sure it was the former - and if so, does that merit mention? DS 01:57, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Not without a reference to a reliable source to support it.  PK T (alk)  17:27, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Greg Malone (actor)


text:
Herbert Croly

Herbert David Croly (January 23, 1869 – May 17, 1930) was an intellectual leader of the progressive movement as an editor, political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine The New Republic in early twentieth-century America. His political philosophy influenced many leading progressives including Theodore Roosevelt, Adolph Berle, as well as his close friends Judge Learned Hand and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter.

His 1909 book The Promise of American Life looked to the constitutional liberalism as espoused by Alexander Hamilton, combined with the radical democracy of Thomas Jefferson. The book influenced contemporaneous progressive thought, shaping the ideas of many intellectuals and political leaders, including then ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. Calling themselves "The New Nationalists", Croly and Walter Weyl sought to remedy the relatively weak national institutions with a strong federal government. He promoted a strong army and navy and attacked pacifists who thought democracy at home and peace abroad was best served by keeping America weak.

Croly was one of the founders of modern liberalism in the United States, especially through his books, essays and a highly influential magazine founded in 1914, The New Republic. In his 1914 book Progressive Democracy, Croly rejected the thesis that the American liberal tradition was inhospitable to anti-capitalist alternatives. He drew from the American past a history of resistance to capitalist wage relations that was fundamentally liberal, and he reclaimed an idea that progressives had allowed to lapse—that working for wages was a lesser form of liberty. Increasingly skeptical of the capacity of social welfare legislation to remedy social ills, Croly argued that America's liberal promise could be redeemed only by syndicalist reforms involving workplace democracy. His liberal goals were part of his commitment to American republicanism.

Family
Herbert Croly was born in Manhattan, New York City in 1869 to journalists Jane Cunningham Croly—better known by her pseudonym "Jenny June"—and David Goodman Croly.

Jane Croly was a contributor to The New York Times, The Messenger, and the New York World. She was the editor of Demorest's Illustrated Monthly for 27 years. Jane Croly wrote only on the subject of women and published nine books in addition to her work as a journalist. She was one of the best-known women in America when Herbert Croly was born.

David Croly worked as a reporter for the Evening Post and The New York Herald, as well as the editor of the New York World for 12 years. He was also a noted pamphleteer during Abraham Lincoln's presidency.

Herbert Croly married Louise Emory on May 30, 1892. They remained married until Herbert Croly's death in 1930. They had no children.

Education
Croly attended the City College of New York for one year and entered Harvard College in 1886.

David Croly soon became concerned that his son was being exposed to improper philosophical material at Harvard. The father was a follower of Auguste Comte and discouraged Herbert from studying theology and philosophers that did not agree with Comte. During Herbert’s first two years at Harvard, David became gravely ill, and in 1888 Herbert dropped out of Harvard to become his father’s private secretary and companion. His father died on April 29, 1889.

After Herbert married Louise Emory in 1892 he re-enrolled in Harvard. But, in 1893, Herbert suffered a nervous breakdown and withdrew again from Harvard. Herbert and Louise moved to Cornish, New Hampshire, where he recovered. In 1895, Herbert enrolled for the final time at Harvard at the age of 26. He excelled in his studies until 1899, when he withdrew for the last time from Harvard for unknown reasons, without a degree.

In 1910, after the publication of Herbert Croly's book The Promise of American Life, he was awarded an honorary degree by Harvard University.

Early career
Little is known about Croly's immediate actions after he left Harvard in 1899. Historians believe he went to Paris intending to study philosophy, but by 1900 he had returned to New York City. After returning to America, Herbert Croly worked as an editor for an architectural magazine, The Architectural Record, from 1900 to 1906.

Cornish Art Colony
After Croly had first come to Cornish, a thriving art colony, he decided to build a house there, designed by Charles A. Platt, a prominent architect and friend of Croly through Croly's magazine (Architectural Record). It was typical of Platt's early style, done in an Italianate style with formal gardens and a sweeping view of Mt. Ascutney, a famous feature of many colony homes.

It was in Cornish that Croly worked on a new project: The Promise of American Life, a political book he hoped would provide guidance for Americans during the transition from an agrarian to an industrialized society. When it published in 1909, Croly became a leading political thinker and prominent figure in the progressive movement.

In addition to Platt, Croly was good friends with judge Learned Hand, whose family vacationed in Cornish at their estate "Low Court", and Louis Shipman, a Harvard classmate and playwright who accompanied Croly on his first visit to the colony. Shipman and his wife Ellen had a home in the neighboring town of Plainfield. It is near there that Croly and the Shipmans are buried, in the Gilkey Cemetery just north of the village.

The Promise of American Life
In The Promise of American Life, Herbert Croly set out his argument for a progressive-liberal government in twentieth-century America. He saw democracy as the defining American trait and described democracy not as a government devoted to equal rights but as one with the aim of “bestowing a share of the responsibility and the benefits, derived from political economic association, upon the whole community.” He returned to Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton as representatives of the two main schools of American political thought. Croly famously admitted, “I shall not disguise the fact that on the whole my own preferences are on the side of Hamilton rather than of Jefferson.”

Despite his preference for Hamilton, Croly believed there were some good aspects about Jefferson’s philosophy on government. He wrote, "Jefferson was filled with a sincere, indiscriminate, and unlimited faith in the American people." However, Croly viewed Jeffersonian democracy as "tantamount to extreme individualism", suitable only for pre-Civil War America when the ideal Americans were pioneers pursuing individual wealth. Croly's largest contribution to American political thought was to synthesize the two thinkers into one theory on government: Jefferson’s strong democracy achieved through Hamilton’s strong national government.

Economy
Croly argued that when America shifted from an agrarian economy to an industrial one, Jefferson’s vision was no longer realistic for America. Instead, Croly turned to Alexander Hamilton’s theory of big national government. Government, according to Croly, could no longer be content with protecting negative rights; it needed to actively promote the welfare of its citizens. Croly proposed a three-pronged program: the nationalization of large corporations, the strengthening of labor unions, and a strong central government.

Croly firmly believed that labor unions were “the most effective machinery which has yet been forged for the economic and social amelioration of the laboring class.” He wanted unions to have the right to negotiate contracts to ensure companies would only hire union workers. Unlike other progressives, Croly did not want the government to wage war against large corporations. He wanted the Sherman Antitrust Act repealed and replaced with a national incorporation act that would regulate and, if necessary, nationalize corporations. Croly had little sympathy for non-union workers and small businesses, declaring that “Whenever the small competitor of the large corporation is unable to keep his head above water, he should be allowed to drown.”

Croly did not support economic equality or large disparities in wealth. He believed it was the responsibility of a powerful central government to practice “constructive discrimination” on behalf of the poor. Croly's plan included a federal inheritance rate of 20%, not the individual income tax that other progressive reformers wanted. Croly argued that compensation for work should be adjusted to “the needs of a normal and wholesome life” —an idea along the lines of the Utopian author Edward Bellamy.

Rights
Croly called for the adoption of Hamiltonian means to achieve Jeffersonian ends. To achieve this synthesis, however, Croly rejected Hamilton's arguments for institutional checks on a pure national democracy, and Jefferson's arguments for limited government. Croly rejected these limits because he saw them as too closely tied to the doctrine of individual rights. Croly wanted to transcend the doctrine of individual rights in order to create a national political community, one that would be forged by a strong but democratic national government. However, Croly failed to see the connection between Jefferson's belief in democracy and his belief in limited government, and he failed to see the connection between Hamilton's belief in a strong national government and his call for institutional checks on democracy. Thus, although many American reform movements have their roots in the rhetoric of Croly's progressivism, to be effective they have had to accommodate the principles of liberal individualism that Croly wished to eradicate.

Croly's elite
Croly's strong central government needed strong individuals to lead it. His ideal was Abraham Lincoln, a person who was “something of a saint and something of a hero” and understood that democracy in America was greater than "rights"; it was a national ideal. Croly, like Hamilton, had a faith in the powerful few and sincerely believed that those few would remain democratic. His search for a great American leader became an obsession that was never satisfied. Croly's notion of the elite was challenged by civil libertarians who believed Croly's powerful few would lead to a totalitarian state. In the telling of Fred Siegel of the conservative Manhattan Institute, “For Croly, businessmen and their allies – the jack-of-all-trades latter-day Jeffersonians – were blocking the path to the bright future he envisioned for the specialists of the rising professional classes.”

Criticism
The Promise of American Life has received criticism from a number of angles. Many feared the underlying tones of totalitarianism or fascism. Croly insisted his government was nationalistic not socialistic. Even those who believed Croly's government could be democratic had concerns that Croly's vision for the country was clouded by a Republican prejudice: his writing contained several criticisms of the Democrats but almost none of the Republicans.

Croly's book was also criticized for its lack of national focus. It focused almost entirely on problems that were of interest to those living in cities but not to rural America. The tariff, conservation, currency, banking, and agriculture all were only mentioned in passing, if at all. Connected to that was an argument that Croly's plans were unrealistic and detached from the reality that many Americans were living.

By Croly's death in 1930, 7,500 copies of The Promise of American Life had been sold.

After The Promise of American Life
The publication of The Promise of American Life in 1909 earned Croly a lot of publicity and the attention of some important people, including Dan Hanna, Mark Hanna’s son. From 1911 to 1912, Croly worked on a biography of Hanna: Marcus Alonzo Hanna: His Life and Work. Croly needed a source of income at the time, and Dan Hanna paid Croly to write the book but reserved the right to make changes before it was published. The book had soaring praise for Mark Hanna, a conservative who saw the role of government very differently from Croly.

The Promise of American Life also attracted the attention of Roosevelt; they became friends. When Roosevelt ran for president in 1912 as a candidate for the Bull Moose party, he used the slogan "New Nationalism". There is some dispute among historians whether Roosevelt took the slogan directly from The Promise of American Life or if he had already developed the concept himself. Either way, Croly was credited at the time as the author.

Croly was drawn into presidential politics during the election of 1912. Croly (representing Roosevelt) took the national stage against Louis Brandeis (representing Woodrow Wilson) on the issue of trusts. Brandeis and Wilson took the side of small business, arguing that competition and equal opportunity for small businesses was at the heart of American democracy. They painted Roosevelt as the candidate of big business, and Croly was charged with arguing that big business, when properly regulated, was better for national unity and prosperity because it was efficient without the greed he associated with small business competition.

Wilson easily defeated Roosevelt and won the election. In early 1913, Croly and his wife moved to Washington, D.C. where Croly started on his next project, the book, Progressive Democracy.

Progressive Democracy
In Progressive Democracy, published in 1915, Croly picked up where The Promise of American Life left off, shifting his focus to economic democracy and the issue of power for workers in large corporations. He wrote that his goal was to explain "the needs and requirements of a genuinely popular system of representative government." For Croly, those needs and requirements included information on major political issues available to the public, energetic public debate and discussion, and the pursuit of a common voice in society.

A main concern of Croly's in Progressive Democracy was that the United States Constitution was fundamentally inconsistent with American democratic aspirations. He perceived the Constitution as a “living Constitution,” capable in his mind of becoming something other than the Founding Fathers intended. Croly's alternative to interpreting the Constitution as "living" was to eliminate it and start over, or at least substantially alter it. The basis for his argument was the belief that for progressive democracy to be successful it needed to move quickly, and the Constitution did not accommodate that. Reforms were needed that could not wait for the approval of Congress or state legislatures.

In Progressive Democracy, Croly expressed hope that reformers in 1915 were different enough from reformers of the past that they could make real differences in American politics. His call for a more progressive democracy hinged on reforming social and economic systems. He accused Woodrow Wilson's administration of returning the country to Jeffersonian individualism, the opposite of where he thought the country should be going. He ended by appealing to Americans’ cultural and social instincts to improve their situation. Rejecting both individualism and socialism, he argued that "the 'scientific' forms of both individualism and socialism rest finally on a dogmatic economic determinism, which presumes to define the laws of social causation, and whose ideal necessarily counts in the submission of the individual and social will to the conditions of the social process. The progressive democratic faith carries with it the liberation of democracy from this class of social pseudo knowledge."

The New Republic
After Woodrow Wilson won the presidential election in 1912, Harper’s Weekly became the leading magazine for Progressive party politics. Herbert Croly believed the magazine took the wrong stance on many issues and endeavored to start a magazine of his own. In 1914, Willard Straight and his wife Dorothy Payne Whitney provided the financing for Croly's magazine, The New Republic.

Croly, Walter Lippmann, and Walter Weyl were the co-founders of The New Republic. The first issue appeared on November 7, 1914. TNR’s articles represented the politics of its founders, and by 1915 the journal had attracted an audience of about 15,000, mainly young intellectuals in New York.

Theodore Roosevelt was the star of many early pieces in TNR, but by December 1914, Roosevelt had a falling out with Croly, Lippmann, and Weyl. The editors chastised Roosevelt for an attack on Wilson’s policy in Mexico. In retaliation, Roosevelt accused the editors of personal disloyalty and ended relations with them, becoming openly hostile toward Croly and the others.

World War I presented the first real policy challenge. Though they had been criticizing various Wilsonian strategies in domestic politics, the editors were hesitant to take a strong position on the war. Croly's pragmatism set the magazine’s tone early, not blaming Germany but not openly supporting the Allies either. In the summer of 1915, TNR endorsed Norman Angell’s notion of a limited war, using techniques like seizing German assets rather than all-out war.

By late 1916, Croly had come around to some of Wilson’s policies and used TNR to declare his support of Wilson in the 1916 election. However, Croly became disillusioned toward the end of World War I and finally abandoned his loyalty to Wilson in 1918.

The period from 1918 to 1921 was difficult for TNR, and by 1921, Croly was the only original member of The New Republic that remained. Willard Straight died of influenza and pneumonia in 1918 at the age of 38, and three weeks later Randolph Bourne, a contributor to TNR from the beginning, died of the same influenza epidemic at age 32. Theodore Roosevelt died at the age of 60 only one month later, followed by Walter Weyl who died in 1919 at age 46. Walter Lippmann left the magazine in 1921 on bad terms with Croly. Around the same time, Judge Learned Hand—one of Croly's closest friends—broke off their friendship over differences between them on the Treaty of Versailles. Although the friendship somewhat healed years later, it was a devastating loss to Croly.

In 1924 The New Republic filed for bankruptcy. Though it reorganized and began publishing again, the original spirit of the magazine would not return. Croly remained a contributor, however, until his death in 1930.

Later life and death
Although Croly eventually joined calls for American involvement in World War I, he became pessimistic and frustrated by the costs of war. In late 1917 and 1918, Croly began questioning his own beliefs about nationalism and democracy. The Treaty of Versailles delivered a severe blow to Croly's progressive spirit, causing him to declare that the Paris Peace Conference was the apocalypse of liberalism.

The vicious treatment of unions during the labor movements in the 1920s was difficult for Croly, a big union supporter. The issue of prohibition put Croly's beliefs about the role of the national government to the test. He ultimately adopted the policy Louis Brandeis suggested to him—that the federal government be responsible for interstate trafficking of alcohol but that states take responsibility for internal enforcement. But, for Croly, the challenge of how to handle prohibition was the final straw in breaking his faith in his old vision of democracy.

In 1920, Croly worked on another book called The Breach in Civilization. It was a reflection on the role of religion in the future. The result was a compilation of the ideals Croly once held but by then believed were unrealistic positions. He wrote that legislation as a solution for social issues was unimportant, and abandoned his own core philosophy that central government could create human amelioration. He condemned progressivism as a failure. As the book was on its way to the publisher, Felix Frankfurter persuaded Croly to withdraw the manuscript. It was never published, and only part of the text remains today.

Croly's steady mental and physical decline in the 1920s culminated in a massive stroke in 1928. Though he survived, movement of the right side of his body was impaired and his ability to speak was seriously affected. For 20 painful months Croly and his wife worked toward his recovery, but it was too much to overcome. Herbert Croly died on May 17, 1930, and was buried in Plainfield, New Hampshire, alongside his wife's gravestone.

New Deal
Croly died before the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. However, historians commonly consider the New Deal to be a program that embodied many of Croly's most central beliefs and ideas. Whether or not Roosevelt was directly influenced by Croly's writings is debated, but many of Croly's visions for how government should operate are tenets of the New Deal. Adolph Berle, a member of the New Deal Brain Trust, was a Bull Moose Progressive and familiar with Croly's work.

Works

 * Croly, Herbert. The Promise of American Life (1909) full text online
 * Croly, Herbert. Progressive Democracy (1914) full text online
 * Croly, Herbert. Marcus Alonso Hanna: His Life and Work full text online(1912), favorable biography of the leading conservative politician
 * Croly, Herbert. "The Effect on American Institutions of a Powerful Military and Naval Establishment," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 66 (July 1916), pp. 157–172..
 * Croly, Herbert. "State Political Reorganization," Proceedings of the American Political Science Association, Vol. 8, Eighth Annual Meeting (1911), pp. 122–135..
 * Croly, Herbert David, 1869–1930. Religion in life : typescript, 19--.  MS Am 1291.  Houghton Library, Harvard University.

title: Herbert Croly


text: Category:Canadian city councils

title: Category:Canadian city councils


text: Talk:Al Gore controversies

title: Talk:Al Gore controversies


text:
Federal University of Rio Grande

The Federal University of Rio Grande (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, FURG) is a public Brazilian university funded by the Brazilian federal government, located in the city of Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Formally established on October 21, 1969, it includes 18 departments providing 31 different undergraduate courses, as well as a number of graduate programs.

Degrees
FURG provides five different types of degree: undergraduate (bachelor, teaching, and technology), graduate's specialization, residency (for undergraduate courses, such as medicine, teaching courses, nursing, and law), master's degree, and doctoral degree.

Undergraduate studies
FURG teaching the following undergraduate courses in five different campi (located in the following cities: Rio Grande, São Lourenço do Sul, Santa Vitória do Palmar, Santo Antônio da Patrulha):

 * Accounting sciences – bachelor's degree
 * Administration – bachelor's degree
 * Agroecology – bachelor's degree
 * Agrochemistry – bachelor's degree
 * Food industries – bachelor's degree
 * Applied mathematics – bachelor's degree
 * Archaeology – bachelor's degree
 * Archival science – bachelor's degree
 * Automation engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Biochemical engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Biological science – both bachelor's degree and teaching degree
 * Chemical engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Chemistry – both bachelor's degree and teaching degree
 * Civil engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Civil engineering and management – bachelor's degree
 * Port civil engineering – Bachelor's degree
 * Computer engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Cooperative management – technology degree
 * Economics – bachelor's degree
 * Environmental management – technology degree
 * Environmental toxicology – technology degree
 * Events – technology degree
 * Exact sciences – teaching degree
 * Field education – teaching degree
 * Food engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Geography – both bachelor's degree and teaching degree
 * History – both bachelor's degree and teaching degree
 * Hotel management – bachelor's degree
 * Information systems – bachelor's degree
 * International relations – bachelor's degree
 * International trade – bachelor's degree
 * Spanish, French or English – teaching degree
 * Library science – bachelor's degree
 * Mathematics – teaching degree
 * Mechanical engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Mechanical engineering and management – bachelor's degree
 * Medicine – bachelor's degree
 * Naval mechanical engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Nursing – bachelor's degree
 * Oceanology – bachelor's degree
 * Pedagogy – teaching degree
 * Physical education – teaching degree
 * Physics – both bachelor's degree and teaching degree
 * Production engineering – bachelor's degree
 * Psychology – bachelor's degree
 * Sciencies – teaching degree
 * Tourism – bachelor's degree
 * Visual arts – both bachelor's degree and teaching degree

Master's and doctoral degrees
FURG teaching the following master's and doctoral degrees in two different campi (located in the following cities: Rio Grande, Brazil|Rio Grande and Santo Antônio da Patrulha):

 * Accounting sciences – master's degree
 * Administration – master's degree
 * Agroindustrial systems and processes – master's degree
 * Applied economics – master's degree
 * Aquaculture – master's and doctoral degree
 * Biological oceanography – master's and doctoral degree
 * Biology of continental aquatic environments – master's and doctoral degree
 * Chemical engineering – master's degree
 * Coastal management – master's degree
 * Computational modeling – master's and doctoral degree
 * Computer engineering – master's degree
 * Education – master's degree
 * Environmental education – master's and doctoral degree
 * Exact sciences teaching – master's degree
 * Food science and engineering – master's and doctoral degree
 * Geography – master's degree
 * Health sciences – master's and doctoral degree
 * History – master's degree
 * Law and social justice – master's degree
 * Letters – master's and doctoral degree
 * Mathematics – master's degree
 * Mechanical engineering – master's degree
 * Nursing – master's and doctoral degree
 * Ocean engineering – master's degree
 * Oceanology – master's and doctoral degree
 * Physics – master's degree
 * Physics teaching – master's degree
 * Physiological sciences – master's and doctoral degree
 * Public health – master's degree
 * Science education – master's and doctoral degree
 * Technological and environmental chemistry – master's and doctoral degree

title: Federal University of Rio Grande


text:
Isobelle Carmody

Isobelle Jane Carmody (born 16 June 1958) is an Australian writer of science fiction, fantasy, children's literature, and young adult literature. She is recipient of the Aurealis Award for best children's fiction.

Biography
Isobelle Carmody was born in Wangaratta on 16 June 1958, the eldest of eight children. She began work on Obernewtyn Chronicles at the age of fourteen. This was soon after the death of her father in a traffic accident. She continued to work on them while completing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in literature and philosophy; she worked in public relations and journalism.

The Stone Key, book five of the Obernewtyn Chronicles, was released in February 2008. The Sending, book six of that series, was officially released on 31 October 2011. The seventh and final book, The Red Queen, was released in November 2015.

She was Guest of Honour at the 2007 Australian National Science Fiction Convention, Convergence 2, held in Melbourne in June 2007.

Personal
Her partner is Jan Stolba, a Czech musician and poet. She currently divides her time between her home on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, and her travels abroad with her partner and daughter, spending a year each in her two residences.

Picture books

 * Journey From the Centre of the Earth (2003), illustrated by Marc McBride
 * Wildheart (2002), illustrated by Steven Woolman
 * Dreamwalker (2000), a story in graphic novel form, illustrated by Steven Woolman
 * The Wrong Thing (2006), illustrated by Declan Lee (rewritten for the US/Canada and published as Magic Night)
 * Night School (2010), illustrated by Anne Spudvilas
 * Evermore (2015), illustrated by Daniel Reed

Awards
2011 – Children's Book Council of Australia Awards
 * Younger Readers Book of the Year: winner for The Red Wind

2008 – Aurealis Awards
 * Young Adult Novel: Shortlisted for The Stone Key

2007 – Aurealis Awards
 * Children's Novel: shortlisted for A Fox Called Sorrow

2006 – ABPA Book Design Awards
 * Fiction: winner for Little Fur: the Legend of Little Fur

2006 – Aurealis Awards
 * Golden Aurealis novel: winner for Alyzon Whitestarr
 * Young Adult Novel: winner for Alyzon Whitestarr
 * Children's Long Fiction: winner for Little Fur: The Legend of Little Fur

2002 – Aurealis Awards
 * Young Adult Short Story Award: winner for Dreamwalker

1998 – Aurealis Awards
 * Young Adult Novel: winner for Greylands
 * Fantasy Novel: shortlisted for "Darkfall: Book One of the Legendsong"

1998 – Ditmar Awards
 * Australian Long Fiction: shortlisted for Darkfall

1997 – Aurealis Awards
 * Young Adult Short Story: winner for Green Monkey Dreams

1997 – Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Stories
 * Young Adult Division: winner for Greylands

1996 – Aurealis Awards
 * Young Adult Novel: shortlisted for Ashling

1994 – The Children's Book Council of Australia Awards
 * Book of the Year for Older Readers: joint winner for The Gathering

1994 – W.A. Young Readers Book Award (WAYRA)
 * Second for The Gathering

1993 – Children's Peace Literature Award (PEACE)
 * Best Book: joint winner for The Gathering

1992 – 3M Talking Book Award – (NSW)
 * Talking Book: Winner for Scatterlings

1991 – The Children's Book Council of Australia Awards
 * Book of the Year for Older Readers – Honour Book for The Farseekers: the Obernewtyn Chronicles

1988 – The Children's Book Council of Australia Awards
 * Book of the Year for Older Readers: shortlisted for Obernewtyn: The Obernewtyn Chronicles

A more complete list of Isobelle Carmody's nominations and awards can be found on the author profila at Penguin Books

title: Isobelle Carmody


text:
Mountain Equipment Co-op

Mountain Equipment Co-op (now called 1077 Holdings Co-Operative) is a Canadian co-op that started the MEC outdoor gear retail brand. The MEC brand name, assets and store leases were purchased by the American private investment firm Kingswood Capital Management's subsidiary Mountain Equipment Company in October 2020. 1077 Holdings Co-operative remains active to deal with the remaining claims by creditors and will be wound up at some point in the future.

Mountain Equipment Co-Op was formed as a Canadian consumers' co-operative to sell outdoor recreation gear and clothing exclusively to its members. Mountain Equipment Co-Op was notable for its commitment to environmental protection and other causes. As a co-op, Mountain Equipment Co-Op sold only to customers who held a lifetime membership, which was technically a share of the co-op. MEC (as a co-operative) was Canada's largest supplier of outdoor equipment. Following its founding in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1971, MEC expanded across Canada and grew to operate stores in 20 cities. Once catering to mountaineers and climbers, MEC targeted a broader, more urban clientele, having added more clothing as well as cycling and yoga supplies. At its peak MEC had over 5.4 million members in Canada and internationally.

Facing mounting financial losses in 2019 and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, in September 2020, without consulting its membership, the board of directors of the co-operative entered into an agreement to sell its assets to Kingswood. Following the completion of the deal in late October, Kingswood began operating the retail assets as a for-profit business.

Organization
MEC operated twenty-two retail stores and a "Corporate & Group Sales" store for large orders. Some MEC stores incorporated eco-friendly designs. The Ottawa and Winnipeg stores were the first and second retail buildings in Canada to comply with Canada's C2000 Green Building Standard, which acknowledges buildings that achieve energy consumption 50% less than similar conventional structures.

The organization designed and produced a significant proportion of its retail products and also carried other well-known brands. A significant proportion of the company's inventory was manufactured in Asia, with names and addresses of partner-factories made publicly available on the co-op's website. MECs' stated aim is to inspire and enable people to lead active, outdoor lifestyles. They accomplish this by selling outdoor gear, clothing and services. MEC's head office and telephone service centre were located in Vancouver. Its distribution centres were located in Brampton, Ontario and Surrey, British Columbia.

Governance
Chris Strashok, the author of an academic study, remarked in 2011 that "currently there are 3.3 million member owners making MEC the fourth largest democratic entity in Canada, after the governments of Canada, Ontario and Québec." Each year, every member of MEC has the opportunity to vote in the elections for its board of directors, as well as on "special resolutions", through a variety of methods. Before the election period, an information package with platforms of candidates and information on resolutions is distributed. Election results are announced at the annual general meeting.

MEC is governed by a nine-member board of directors. Each year, three directors are elected to three-year terms.

MEC holds its annual general meeting in Vancouver, BC. At this meeting, the Chief Executive Officer and Committee members deliver their annual reports, and answer questions from co-op members. "Other resolutions" may also be brought forward and voted upon. The AGM is typically webcast and members can log in and ask questions. Typically, members recite their member numbers before speaking and these numbers are recorded in the official meeting transcript.

Co-op structure
Strashok remarked in 2011 that, "profits are either shared among member owners based on how much the member uses the co-operative or invested back into the co-operative to improve the services provided to the members, and to sustain the business. Because of this, MEC is financially conservative, growing slowly and taking few risks. This can be challenging when the business is moving through different stages of growth. It does, however, create space for creative solutions and capital remains local benefiting the communities in which MEC operates." While the democratic structure gave one vote to one member, the financial structure and "policies and legislation pertaining to business in Canada, such as how capital is classified, the classification of dividends versus patronage payments, and tax incentives for investing in co-operatives" were, as noted by Strashok, ill-studied by Canadian business schools. These profits were returned to members as the patronage dividend or patronage return that can be found in yearly financial statements.

For the purposes of governance and direction at the AGM the policy was one member, one vote, regardless of how much share capital had been earned by any particular member. Share redemptions were carried out, for example through gift cards, and may have required a policy affirmation. Thus MEC found a means of treating each member as equal, regardless of purchases and shares earned. In 2020 the 5.7 million members had a paid-up capital of $192 million, well above the $5 initiation fee per member. This capital was reinvested in things like stock of merchandise and expansion of the retail empire.

Purposes and objectives
The purposes of the Co-op were from the outset closely intertwined with its governance model. In 2008, the commonweal of the Co-op was measured by Ponto according to Anielski's Genuine Wealth model, while in 2011 Strashok produced a case study that focused on its promotion of sustainable development. The governance model was altered significantly from 2011, to change MEC's focus to a more traditional accounting and retail-based business model.

Environmental and social initiatives
MEC had undertaken initiatives in the field of social and environmental responsibility, including:
 * MEC was the first Canadian retailer to publicly disclose its list of factories and their locations, and updates this list annually.
 * In May 2007 MEC became a member. MEC committed to the goal of sourcing 100% Bluesign approved fabrics by 2020. In 2019, 88% of MEC apparel and sleeping bag materials were Bluesign certified. Bluesign is a third party environmental, health and safety standard for the textiles industry.
 * MEC committed to using 100% organic cotton for all MEC-branded apparel and sets yearly targets to increase its offering of products made from recycled materials.
 * MEC promotes a variety of outdoor education opportunities to its members by an online calendar of events.
 * In December 2007, MEC became the first retailer in Canada to stop selling water bottles and food containers containing bisphenol A, a chemical that is used to make some plastics and has been linked in some studies to increased incidence of cancer and other diseases.
 * In 2008, MEC eliminated all single-use shopping bags from its stores.
 * In 2010 MEC launched a new green building initiative called MEC GBS (Green Building Systems). The aim of the initiative was to ensure MEC leaders in building and operating environmentally-friendly facilities. Its Winnipeg, Longueuil, Burlington and North Vancouver stores, as well as its Montreal office received LEED Gold ratings. Its Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa stores also comply with C2000 standards (Natural Resources Canada's Advanced Commercial Buildings Program).
 * In March 2018, MEC announced that it would no longer stock products made by Vista Outdoor, in response to the 2018 NRA boycott, in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, because some of Vista Outdoor's profits are derived from the production of assault weapons.

Business initiatives
The organization had engaged in several business initiatives:
 * In 1997 MEC introduced a free of charge online gear swap where members can trade used outdoor gear.
 * MEC's distribution centre in Surrey British Columbia was opened in the fall of 2007 and was the first "Green" LEED (Silver) accredited distribution centre in North America.
 * In November 2008 MEC opened bicycle repair shops in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal stores. The Winnipeg and Burlington stores opened their repair shops in March 2009., sixteen stores have bike servicing.
 * In the summer of 2008 MEC launched a series of annual national paddling and biking expositions named "MEC Paddlefest" and "MEC Bikefest".

CEO

 * Bill Gibson 1992–2000
 * Peter Robinson 2000–2007
 * David Labistour 2007–2019
 * Philippe Arrata 2019–20

Board chair

 * Chris McNeil
 * Anders Ourom
 * Denise Lawson (2009–2012)
 * Bill Gibson (2011–2014)
 * Margie Parikh (2014–2016)
 * Ellen Pekeles (2017–18)
 * Judi Richardson

History
In 1971, four members of the University of British Columbia Varsity Outdoor Club conceived the idea of a mountain climbing equipment co-op when a snowstorm stranded them on Mount Baker in Washington state. Prior to this they had been purchasing gear at REI in Seattle. Other Varsity Outdoor Club members joined the plan and MEC was formed. The organization was incorporated under the British Columbia Co-operative Associations Act, with a constitution that was originally written by co-founder Jim Byers.

1972–2000
The MEC's first physical store was opened in 1972 on West Hastings Street in Vancouver. By 1981, it had opened a store in Calgary and had 57,000 members. MEC established its third retail location in Toronto, in 1985. By 1992, MEC's sales had increased to more than $35-million and had 330,000 members. Hudson's Bay Company executive Bill Gibson was hired from outside the organization and within a few years he had opened stores in Ottawa and Edmonton.

2000–2015
Peter Robinson was CEO from 2000 to 2007, until he was replaced by David Labistour in 2007.

Gibson moved to the board in 2000 for a dozen years, which he chaired between 2009 and 2012.

Serratus Mountain Products Ltd. and "the following substantially inactive companies": 330204 British Columbia Ltd., 340070 British Columbia Ltd. and 1314625 Ontario Limited were as of December 29, 2002 wholly owned subsidiaries of MEC.

Festivals
In 2006 MEC began a national program of outdoor "festivals" in every city in Canada that the organization had a store. MEC Paddlefest was the first of these, followed in 2008 by MEC Bikefest, which was initially run in six cities and later expanded. MEC launched its third festival, MEC Snowfest, in all MEC store cities during the winter of 2011.

Expanded product lines
From 2009 to 2011 MEC expanded its traditional back-country products to include urban outdoor pursuits. Road running, bicycles and yoga apparel were introduced and became significant components of MEC's marketing focus.

In November 2009, MEC entered the bicycle retail market. This move was resisted by some suppliers of bicycle components, who refused to ship to MEC. One Quebec distributor ceased doing business with a bicycle manufacturer when that company decided to supply MEC. At that time, MEC had 11 retail outlets and about $265 million in sales. The CEO of MEC remarked that the industry had been given two years' notice about MEC's plans to enter the bicycle market. For its initial bicycles offered, MEC contracted with a Taiwanese manufacturer to build a bicycle line under MEC's own brand. MEC planned to sell $4 million worth of bicycles in its first year.

In November 2009 MEC began selling MEC-branded bikes in seven stores: Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Burlington, Toronto, Montreal and Longueuil. In 2015, MEC offered 58 different models including road bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid and urban bikes. Some models are designed specifically for women or children. In 2012 MEC also began selling a selection of Ghost Bikes, in late 2013 added Ridley Bikes who made the choice to bet on the success of MEC instead of existing distributor Live To Play Sports, and Intense Bicycles in early 2017.

Business model opposition
In November 2010, as the MEC petitioned North Vancouver for permission to re-zone a property for expansion of its retail operation there, Jayson Faulkner, a competitor who owned Escape Route, took issue with the income tax rules under which the MEC was able to "amass hundreds of millions of dollars in patronage dividends that were never taxed or paid out to members, thus creating a huge pool of cash to fund its dramatic expansion." Faulkner wrote that "MEC is able to generate working capital at 10x the rate of all its competitors... MEC is absolutely no different than any other very large corporation operating in Canada. They are an aggressive, predatory competitor who will do whatever it takes to ensure they continue to grow and eat up market share, which is already 70-80% in some product categories... They have in the past and present, undertaken decisions and policies that will aggressively protect their own interests. “Lead pipe” capitalism is alive and well at MEC." The petition succeeded.

Rebranding
In 2012, when MEC had 15 stores, its marketing name was changed from Mountain Equipment Co-op to just MEC, to reflect the changed focus of the organization.

On 18 June 2013, Mountain Equipment rebranded their logo, replacing the twin mountain peaks with a green square containing the text "MEC" in bold.

In 2013 the "earnings before patronage return and income taxes" was $10 million, and in 2014 was $8 million, on sales that year of $336 million; cost of sales was $226 million and cost of administration was $105 million.

Board governance changes
Over the four-year period to 2011–2015, the board of directors made it increasingly difficult for members lacking specific educational and experience qualifications to run for board membership. Former board chairman Anders Ourom, who had been a member of the MEC board for nine years, was even disqualified for election in 2012, as unqualified. Former board chairman Chris McNeil, who had served on the board for 20 years, said, "if there are too many people with sophisticated backgrounds, they will have a mindset or bias there because of the type of person you're asking for." MEC co-founder Jim Byers, observed, "they've become captured by the very retail structures that we fought against." Governance consultant Mark Latham said, "I don't think members' interests are well protected by the governance as it is now." By this time the board was able to disqualify board candidates and disregard member resolutions it disliked.

In 2013, "the board required that director candidates have board or senior management experience 'in a complex organization'. For the 2016 election, the board requires directors to have that experience 'in an organization of comparable complexity to MEC'." MEC CEO David Labistour said that pre-selection of board candidates "offers [the] membership an informed election" that is both transparent and "in line with the health of the organization." Concurrently, the board was given a hefty pay raise. In 2015, the chair made more than $58,000, as compared to 2011 when he was compensated $30,500.

Democratic remedies available to MEC members were curtailed during the same period. In 2013, "the board increased the number of signatures required to get a motion placed before the membership to 500 from five" It was noted that "now, even if a special resolution has the required number of signatures, the board can still refuse to put it on the ballot if two-thirds of directors are opposed."

In 2015, MEC had 18 stores and had sales of $336 million. Its product lineup was broadened to include "more mainstream items such as road running shoes and downhill skis", and it aimed to better serve a "younger, more multicultural and female" clientele. CEO Labistour observed that the values of the "white Anglo-Saxon male" were being obliterated and, to cope with the changed circumstances of the Canadian retail environment, he changed the mission of the organization. As of 2014 year end, subsidiary 1314625 Ontario Limited was "substantially inactive" according to the audit firm of KPMG.

2015–2019
A change in mission occurred while Bill Gibson was MEC's board chair, as the co-op incorporated urban pursuits like road running, cycling and yoga into the product line. By 2015, products also included downhill skis, snowboards and accessories. MEC had formerly focused on "self-propelled outdoor wilderness activities" and these new product lines made it a competitor in the urban sports retail market under CEO Labistour. MEC had positioned itself as a competitor to the Forzani Group and Walmart Canada, and this attracted complaints from retailers like Sporting Life, whose co-founder David Russell noted that as a co-op, MEC had considerable tax advantages.

In 2017, it was reported that 36% of the products sold by the MEC were its own brand. The organization had 22 retail stores and 2,450 employees. Kelowna, Laval, South Edmonton and North York had brand-new MEC stores and the store in London, Ontario had been relocated. The North York store was the third store in the Greater Toronto Area, while Kelowna was the first store added in the Okanagan. In 2016 the fiscal year was changed from end-December to end-February. The co-op planned to open a new store in Kitchener, and relocate the stores in Edmonton and Quebec City in the spring of 2017. Planning was also underway for a relocated Toronto store for the fall of 2018, a new Calgary South store in the fall of 2018, relocation of the Vancouver store and the opening of a new store in west Calgary for the fall of 2019.

On August 10, 2017, it was reported by the Corporate Registrar of BC that as of August 2, 1314625 Ontario Limited had been listed as an extraprovincial company having business as a foreign entity in BC.

2020 financial difficulties and sale of assets
In November 2018, South African-born CEO David Labistour announced his plans to leave MEC, after 11 years as CEO. Between 2003 and 2008, he had been employed by the firm as "Chief Product Officer". Labistour grew the company's share ownership from 2.7 million members to 5.1 million members and opened 11 new retail locations. Ellen Pekeles was then chair of the Board of Directors.

In May 2019 the former chief financial officer at Best Buy Canada, Philippe Arrata, was appointed as CEO of MEC. Arrata had been an MEC board member between 2015 and 2018, and was also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business.

In December 2019, MEC announced a net loss of $11.5 million for the fiscal year that had ended February 24, 2019, which included restructuring charges of $8.5 million. This compared to net earnings of $11.7 million a year earlier.

In May 2020 Steve Grant, a former MEC staff member and former member of the board of directors, along with other long-term members, accused the MEC board of rigging its own elections since 2012, to allow it to stack the board with its own preferred members. The board had amended its own rules to allow it to recommend candidates on the ballot that it wanted elected and exclude candidates it deemed unqualified.

As of September 14, 2020, MEC owed a syndicate of lenders $74 million. It had suffered losses and laid off 900 employees, in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic. MEC expected to owe $92.4 million by the end of November. Its year-end financial statement indicates that had "lost $11.487 million in 2019 on sales of $462 million", partly due to COVID-19. At that time, the co-op had 5 million members.

Sale of the co-op assets
On September 14, 2020, it was announced that MEC's assets, including the majority of its retail stores, would be acquired by private equity firm Kingswood Capital Management, LP in a deal under the federal Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Kingswood Capital Management plans to retain at least 17 of the 22 existing stores as well as up to 75% of the staff and operate the stores as a chain, using the existing MEC name and branding. Following the completion of the sale, the co-operative itself will continue to formally exist for the time being, but its retail activities will cease. The incoming CEO Eric Claus stated that it was "highly unlikely" that members would receive their $5 shares back. Staff cuts and closures of at least five locations are planned. The fate of a proposed location in Saskatoon was left unclear.

The decision to sell its assets to Kingswood was met with objection from some co-op members. The board of directors had not consulted MEC members about the sale nor even informed them about it. The board had also not consulted members on a possible rights issue deal, to make an internal offer to refloat the co-op. A petition was started on Change.org "calling on the MEC Board of Directors to cancel the deal, and hold immediate open, fair and democratic board elections". It had accumulated 73,600 signatures in its first four days. By September 26, 2020 the petition had exceeded 136,000 signatures.

In an official announcement on September 18, 2020 Judi Richardson, Chair of the MEC Board of Directors, addressed members, writing, "We recognize this has been an unsettling week for members. The sale of MEC's business, and the decision to move the business away from the co-operative model was, after all, a very difficult decision – but it was the right one. Facing a stark choice, we chose to preserve employment opportunities, a larger store presence, and a commitment to MEC's ethos rather than fold up the MEC tent for good." In explaining why there was no communication with members on the sale she indicated that the board had prioritized "preserving jobs and saving MEC from bankruptcy or liquidation. In short, we prioritized MEC's survival." She indicated that while under CCAA protection, "a member vote (or in the case of corporations, a shareholder vote) is not required" to sell the assets of the organization.

MEC founding board member Sara Golling said in a September 18, 2020 interview that she felt "grief and betrayal" at the sale of the co-op's assets to a private US investment firm. She stated, "MEC was a co-op, and one of the co-operative principles is democratic member control. The members were never consulted about this. We were never warned just how bad conditions were for MEC. We knew it was bad but we had rather hoped [the co-op] could survive this rough patch. We weren't given any voice at all in what happened. We were totally ignored by the board when perhaps we could have helped." When asked, "would you shop at MEC again? Golling replied, "At this point, I kind of doubt it. Why would I? I feel so disappointed. So betrayed."

On September 21, a group of shareholders announced that it had raised $50,000 through a GoFundMe campaign in order to be represented in the CCAA process by Victory Square Law Office of Vancouver, and in order "to hold an emergency members' meeting to replace the board of directors". Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada and the British Columbia Co-op Association asked government to "make sure legislation governing co-ops has been respected in the deal," and questioned the use of the CCAA in relation to the BC Co-operative Association Act.

On September 24, it was reported that Robert Wallis, the board member who chaired the special committee that sought from March 2020 a "strategic alternative" to its own management filed an affidavit in which the then-current board said that it considered "impractical to impossible" an early disclosure to shareholders of the difficulties encountered by the then-current board with their continued management of the retail business, which then included a subsidiary, 1314625 Ontario Limited. The then-current board found "negligible" the chance that shareholders might raise sufficient funds. The burn rate of the money-losing business was then approximately $1.6 million per week. The Wallis affidavit restated the losses for year 2018-2019 as $31.4 million as opposed to the $11.5 million previously published, and disclosed that $24.5 million had been lost in the 2019-2020 business year. The Wallis affidavit listed at great length the alternatives sought by the special committee, and stated that full and fair disclosure to shareholders as part of a rights issue "could have had a negative impact on MEC's business, including its relationships with suppliers and landlords and its search for new financing or for a buyer." The conduct of the special committee was influenced by the participation of a Financial Advisor (FTI Consulting) who were retained by the Royal Bank of Canada, who were lead banker in the lenders' consortium.

On September 22, the court-appointed monitor, Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc, urged the BC Supreme Court to endorse the $110 million sale to Kingswood in a hearing that was scheduled to occur on September 28. The Globe and Mail reported that between February 23 and September 6, 2020, MEC had a net loss of $20.9 million on sales of $162.8 million. The financial advisor to the liquidation process "contacted 158 parties; nine of them ultimately signed a letter of intent contemplating an acquisition of most or all of the assets." MEC owned outright six of 22 retail locations: North York, North Vancouver, Ottawa, Burlington, Calgary and Winnipeg, which had a collective book value of $65.9 million. The Surrey distribution centre had a book value of $24.4 million.

On September 25 it was disclosed in the Save MEC Notice of Application for intervenor status that the stakeholding of the 5.7 million members amounted to $192 million, or an average of $33 per member, who represented 22% of the working-age population of Canada. On September 28, the current management responded in a court filing, which said they doubted the ability of Save MEC to address the significant "cash flow issues, noting that the proposed sources of potential funding don't involve concrete commitments or realistic options" and remarked that they feared "the proposed adjournment would put the deal (with Kingswood) in jeopardy."

Store locations opened
MEC had expanded across Canada as follows:
 * Vancouver (1972)
 * Calgary (downtown) (1977)
 * Toronto (downtown) (1985)
 * Gibson years
 * Ottawa (1992)
 * Edmonton (downtown) (1998)
 * Robinson years
 * Halifax (2001)
 * Winnipeg (2002)
 * Montreal (2003)
 * Quebec City (2004)
 * North Vancouver (2004)
 * Victoria (2006)
 * Labistour years
 * Burlington (2008)
 * Longueuil (2009)
 * Barrie (2010)
 * London, Ontario (2011)
 * Langley (2013)
 * Kelowna (2016)
 * Laval (2016)
 * Edmonton (South Edmonton Common) (2016)
 * Toronto (North York) (2016)
 * Kitchener (2017)
 * Calgary (South) (2018)

title: Mountain Equipment Co-op


text:
Springfield (provincial electoral district)

Springfield was a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by the province's first electoral redistribution in 1874 and existed until 2011, except for the period from 1914 to 1920.

Springfield was located to the immediate east of the City of Winnipeg. It was bordered to the north by Selkirk and Gimli, to the east by Lac Du Bonnet and to the south by La Verendrye. The riding included the municipalities of Springfield and East St. Paul, as well as Anola, Dugald, Birds Hill and Oakbank. Before 1989, the riding stretched as far as the Ontario border.

The riding's population in 1996 was 18,599. In 1999, the average family income was $67,794, and the unemployment rate was 4.50%. Manufacturing accounted for 12% of all industry in the riding, followed by 11% in the service sector. Springfield had significant Ukrainian and German populations, at 9% and 8% respectively.

Springfield was represented by various political parties over its long history, without any one party dominating for an extended period of time. This pattern hd begun to change, as the riding had been represented by the Progressive Conservatives since 1990, and the last member, Member of the Legislative Assembly, Ron Schuler, was re-elected with over 60% of the vote in 2003. The seat was considered safe for the Progressive Conservatives.

Following the 2008 electoral redistribution, the riding was dissolved into La Verendrye and the new riding of St. Paul. This took effect for the 2011 election.


text:
Soni Razdan

Soni Mahesh Bhatt ( Razdan) born and known professionally as Soni Razdan, is a British actress and director who works in Indian Hindi-language films. Part of the Bhatt family of Indian cinema, she is married to film director Mahesh Bhatt and is the mother of actress Alia Bhatt.

Early life
Soni Razdan was born on 25 October, 1956 in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, England to a British mother of German descent, Gertrude Hoelzer and an Indian father of Kashmiri Pandit descent, Narendra Nath Razdan.

Soni Razdan grew up in Bombay, India.

Career
Razdan started her career in English theatre with John Fowles' The Collector and her Hindi stage career with Bund Darvaze, Satyadev Dubey's adaptation of Jean Paul Sartre's No Exit.

Her photos were seen by Franco Zeffirelli who wanted to cast her as Mary in his miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth. The role, however, was given to Olivia Hussey and Razdan was cast as a young grieving mother as well as appearing as an extra in other scenes.

She appeared as Sulochana in the Doordarshan TV series Buniyaad. She also acted in Indian TV serials Saahil, Gaatha and has been a regular on Indian television. In 2002, she turned to direction with Aur Phir Ek Din on Star Plus, a take-off on One Fine Day starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.

She has also acted in Bollywood movies. Razdan directed a film called Love Affair that was expected to be released in 2016, but did not. She acted in Meghna Gulzar's Raazi which also starred her daughter Alia in the lead role. This was the first time when she shared the screen with Alia where she played the character of Alia's mother. Soni played the lead role in the film Yours Truly where she portrayed the character of a lonely middle-aged government employee Mithi Kumar. She also appeared as the Imaaduddin Shah's mother in the 2007 movie Dil Dosti Etc. In 2018, in the light of the MeToo movement Razdan said that once she was nearly raped by someone on a film set. They did not succeed and she did not file a complaint against the attempted rape.

Personal life
Razdan married Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt on 20 April 1986. Bhatt did not want to divorce his first wife, so he and Razdan converted to Islam prior to marriage and held a very private nikaah ceremony. Upon converting to Islam Soni chose the name Sakina as her Muslim name.

She is the mother of Shaheen Bhatt (born 28 November 1988) and actress Alia Bhatt (born 15 March 1993), step mother of Pooja Bhatt & Rahul Bhatt.

Razdan has stated that she has lived in India since she was a 3 month old and that she carries an Overseas Citizenship of India.

title: Soni Razdan