Canada is an incredible Country..updated

Last update: 13.05.10 First posted: 13.05.10 by Estelle in Blogs

We get masses of emails from around the world,

….. some like this one from Canada, really make us think maybe we are doing something right.
I know the lovely lady wont mind me sharing this with you after all it is to all of us, so here is the email.

Hello and Happy Springtime
I am writing you from Montreal, Quebec, in Canada. The video of you two in Todmorden talking about your town’s initiative has changed my life. I am working in our little borough of Wesmount now to bring about some of the change as you have in your town.
Last month I addressed the Healthy Cities Committee, showing some stills of your work that I was able to download from your site. This was a group of “like-mindeds” and was very well received. Tomorrow morning I have the opportunity to speak to the Horticultural Advisory Committee to present this idea and I would like to show them the video of you two talking about Todmorden, with the lovely woman who goes around sampling the veg in town. It turns out that we will not have internet access, however, and I am not sure how to download the video from youtube.
Any advice and encouragement you have would be well appreciated. Enjoy the day in the knowledge that your small town’s growing initiative is breaking ground around the world!

Well how could I not help, there had to be a way to send the video, the file was way too big to send by email, so time to rethink, find a free file sharing site that would take large video files, after a search and a couple of tries I managed to upload it, by this time it is getting late, I sent the link, but it wouldnt download.
So back to the drawing board, finally found another way to link to it. Eventually at 2.30am, I had mailed the new link and received this from Canada.

It’s done — many, many thanks!

Now I could go to sleep happy. And it was all very worthwhile because today we got this email

We have lift-off! The Horticultural Advisory Committee was totally charmed by your video and idea and wants to implement it here — can you believe it!?

We are members of the Cities in Bloom group who compete across Canada and they want to make THIS an initiative of that. We will be showing your video at the plant exchange next week while I plant an edible planter for people. How cool is that!

I would love to have a conversation with some one of you — all of you really, just to have the benefit from your experience.
I would also like to know if other cities (in other countries) have cottoned on to this idea — just to be aware of the scope. I know there are some very interesting things happening around Devon and Toteness with the Transition Culture movement.

You guys are the best. Thanks so much for your inspiration!

Great news about your in bloom people embracing the idea, we think you are all incredible. Today another lovely lady sent us some background about the city.

Incorporated since 1874 Westmount is actually a city of 20,000 inhabitants in the heart of Montreal, a city of about one million. There are several municipalities on the island totalling about two million in the metropolitan area. Westmount is proud of its small town spirit with local initiatives and its own identity in the midst of the urban centre. Traditionally, as Westmount grew in the Victorian area it was populated by mostly English people but today it is a multicultural mix. We are fortunate to have an effective local government that responds to its community’s needs and is very interested in taking the lead in environmental and social issues.
We will keep you posted on our edibles here in Westmount and how we do in the Communities in Bloom competition.

It will be great keeping in touch with the growing initiatives in Westmount, there are so many similarities in our two communities history.

Good growing guys