Wrapped up Marda Gras pro-nuclear table with Jessica on August 13th, and this is the highlight reel.
This year I finally figured out inexpensive shirts ($20/each) which I sold at-cost. Only sold 14 as I didn't have the guts to order too many, but I think I could easily sell 64 of them next year at this price. (Simply by making the price visible. Everyone who asked the price then bought at least one.) Lots of people asked for Thorium shirts (I was wearing one) but I didn't have any printed so they had to settle for Uranium. I do sell shirts year-round for ~$30 /each.
Gummy Bears were again very popular. This time we gave away more info-baggies containing gummy bears than the previous 2 years. (Costco had the cheapest gummies.)
We had rocks to hold down the papers this year, as opposed to panicking when the wind picked up. That was something they just don't teach you in Canadian public schools.
Interactions were similar to both previous years. Lots of enthusiasm. Lots of good-faith questions raised. No anti-nukes approached the table... which I still find surprising but I guess I'm ok with it.
I do have some left over gummy bears, so if you're in Canada hosting some sort of pro-nuclear thing where they could be useful, reach out I'll ship them to you. (Don't want to ship outside of Canada.)
Speaking of anti-nukes...
Green Party of Canada - Pro-Nuclear Policy Proposals
GPC's 2023 "We Decide" policy process is underway, and there are zero anti-nuclear policies (what more could they add?) and 2 pro-nuclear policy proposals.
If you're in GPC or know anyone who is, let's do this. I think in 2023 we can stop GPC from propagating anti-nuke FUD as policy. If you don't want to bug your GPC friend, but they have a public profile just direct me to it and I'll ping them on the matter.
I've been searching Twitter for nuke-agnostic and pro-nuke GPC members, and boy oh boy do I find a lot of anti-nuclear Greens in the process. I guess being a public GPC member means being a public anti-nuke?
So far the policies have both successfully progressed from "Hothouse" to "Workshop" and on Nov 3rd the policies will be voted on.
Both nuclear policies attracted A LOT of comments, many being anti-nuclear comments.
I had one interesting exchange. Here was the response I got...
Thank you Gordon. I wasn't aware of you or your video. You're correct, I misspoke in the roundtable, I wasn't trying to imply that it was binding people into silence, I should have used different words, thanks for pointing that out. Kind regards, -Susan
...which was in response to my comment...
Dr. Susan O’Donnell, thanks for engaging with Colin's proposal. I'm a supporter of it.
You participated in a "Nuclear/SMR Roundtable" with GPC 2 years ago. I created a video pointing out where I thought the roundtable was being disingenuous, but I never heard from you as to your thoughts on it.
Since this proposal is about to pass into "Workshop" ... Colin has 31 sponsors ... I'd be curious if you have any opinions on my video critiquing the round-table you participated in.
I mean I really didn't think you represented the provincial SMR MOU accurately. Not that anyone cares. Not that it matters now. But you SAID "it only binds parties to only talking about the benefits of these technologies".
You described it as if no gov official from any of the 4 participating provinces could possibly mention any downside to SMRs.
https://youtu.be/cu1GIxigNyc?t=618
The SMR MOU itself is here:
https://news.ontario.ca/assets/files/20210503/f1c174c61c544bfddc9d82de520380a0.pdf
I invite any GPC member to watch what you said, then read the 6 page MOU, and see if they agree the MOU is actually binding participants into silence.
-Gord
If you're a Canadian nuke I think you'll know who Dr. Susan O’Donnell is. As far as I know the 3 noisiest anti-nukes are: Dr. Gordon Edwards & Angela Bischoff & Dr. Susan O’Donnell.
The comments were all scrubbed when the proposals were moved from HotHouse to Workshop. Not sure if that is a routine part of the process or not. Certainly annoying and I'm oh-so-glad I saved myself a copy.
(Just like the Dr. Gordon Edwards quote from an email where he says waste-eating reactors could be useful tech, but not before nuke industry is shut-down as waste-eating reactors would "unleash the dogs of nuclear expansionism".)
Attachments
Most of the fliers and material we handed out at Marda Gras. I think this is a good collection for any nuclear table type event. Contact C4NE and SUFN for more. SUFN has ready-to-go material for many regions. C4NE has bigger materials (like reports), but we should work on flier-size stuff too. Your request will make it happen.