Guest Post: Olivia Chow and ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Transit’

TransitHub is proud to support Olivia Chow and her efforts to bring greater attention to the importance of investing in public transit. Not only has she created the Get Canada Moving initiative (Twitter: @GetCanadaMoving), but she's encouraging community involvement through a non-partisan Twitter Campaign on Friday April 27.

Here are all of the details, we hope you'll be tweeting on the 27th!

#BadTransit

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Transit" Twitter Campaign on April 27

Canadians across the country are fed up with growing commuting times and traffic gridlock. On average, Canadian employees spent the equivalent of 32 working days a year getting to and from work. With escalating economic damage from people, goods and services stuck in traffic, it is time for Canada to tackle its transit problems.

Our municipalities and communities drive Canada’s economy, enhance our quality of life and protect our environment. Forty per cent of federal investments in municipalities will expire soon, including investments in front-line policing, infrastructure, public transit and affordable housing. Our municipalities require and deserve reliable, sustainable federal funding for public transit to help them meet this national challenge and to build more environmentally sustainable, prosperous and livable communities that will help Canada remain competitive in the future.

#GoodTransit!

To draw attention to the urgent need to tackle our transit deficit, I am mobilizing public figures, Members of Parliament, municipal leaders and concerned commuters across the country through a social media campaign. To spread the word and get Canadians talking about this crucial issue, I am asking you for your help.

The non-partisan Twitter campaign will be themed ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Transit’: we are inviting Canadians to participate by taking photos of positive and negative aspects of their daily commutes and posting them to Twitter.

We encourage Tweeters to tag the photos with the hashtags #GoodTransit, #BadTransit and #UglyTransit. This initiative will help us engage the public and bring attention to the need for a National Transit Strategy.

This has gotta be... #UglyTransit!

I am sure that like myself, you are convinced of the impact social media can have in connecting Canadians from all walks of life. Over the next few days, I am kindly requesting that you take 3 photos that reflect the campaign and on April 27, post each photo on Twitter using one of the tags (#GoodTransit; #BadTransit; #UglyTransit). We also encourage you to include our campaign handle: @GetCanadaMoving and to ask your followers to participate.

Thank you for your support in this important initiative. If you would like to learn more about our non-partisan campaign for a National Transit Strategy, please visit www.nationaltransitstrategy.ca.


-Olivia Chow