Pre-Election Brampton Bill 212 Rally

Back on October 23, a group from Bike Brampton led by David Laing attended the Rally and Ride for Road Safety at Queen’s Park; some of whom biked all the way from Brampton. To return the favour, Jess Spieker of Friends & Families for Safe Streets organized a group to take the GO Train to Brampton yesterday for Bike Brampton’s delivery of a ghost bike at Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office on Hurontario Street.

Here’s a group of us who arrived at Brampton Innovation District GO station by GO Train.

A reporter from The Pointer took this photo with some additional riders from Brampton and a bunch of signs. And of course, the ghost bike to be delivered.

Sonia Maset of Different Spokes led today’s ride and MC’ed the rally. She mentioned the route and safety precautions before riding.

Crossed underneath the Kitchener Line. Different Spokes – a bike hub which includes do-it-yourself bike repair, a bike library, and group events – is to the left of this photo on the west side of Hurontairo. Jun noted the lack of bike parking along Hurontairo despite it being Downtown Brampton’s Main Street.

Painted bike lanes were present along Hurontairo staring at Wellington Street. Some parts had buffers which made me wonder why not put in some protection?

The bike lane abruptly ends at the bus lay-by at Nanwood Drive. While we took the lane from there to Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office just past Sir Lou Drive, the Etobicoke Creek Trail runs next to Hurontario from just north of Nanwood Drive to Steeles Avenue which some folks took on the way back.

Brandon, Alison, and Jess riding along Hurontario.

Brampton’s Gateway Terminal is where the Hazel McCallion LRT line will end when it’s completed which will include bike lanes along Hurontario all the way to Port Credit when done. Should the LRT be extended partially underground to Brampton GO per a recent announcement from the Ford government, the bike lanes are expected to be extended as well. However, I wouldn’t expect this to happen before 2030 given Metrolinx’s past track record.

We arrived at the plaza where Prabmeet Sarkaria’s constituency office is based.

Some of the signs being held before the speeches began.

Sonia was the MC for the event and introduced the speakers.

Alison Stewart of Cycle Toronto talked about the need to improve public transit, including her own experiences of travelling to/from Guelph which STILL doesn’t have weekend train service. Something Metrolinx needs to fix ASAP!

Jess Spieker of FFSS claimed she couldn’t understand why a minister of transportation would actively make our streets more dangerous with Bill 212 and claimed Sarkaria is unfit for public office because of that.

I was then asked by Sonia to briefly introduce the new Common Ground Ontario initiative after accidentally being called Zack. 🤣 Will get back to that soon.

David Laing of Bike Brampton wrapped things up by thanking people for attending including a mention of how 60% of Brampton’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from transportation. He also mentioned the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign and an upcoming webinar.

Since the plaza security mentioned we couldn’t lock the ghost bike on their property, we crossed the street to the courthouse to do this.

Here’s the ghost bike being put in place.

Dayle Laing took this group shot with the ghost bike before we left.

Unfortunately, my phone died on the way back, but we did stop at Different Spokes briefly to warm up until the GO train arrived a few minutes later. The stairs behind the bike hub brought us straight to the station platform.

After us Toronto folks boarded the train, the Brampton crew made another stop at MPP Charmaine Williams’ office given she issued a recent e-newsletter calling for bike lane removals on Vodden, Howden, and other streets. Photo courtesy of Dayle Laing.

Thanks Jess of FFSS & David of Bike Brampton for putting this event together. Since Ontario Premier Doug Ford confirmed on Friday that there will be an early provincial election on Thursday, February 27, a new initiative called Common Ground Ontario – which several TCBC members and other advocates across the province are helping with – recently launched their website and Bluesky account. The aim is to organize volunteers across the province to help defeat the Ford government while working with similar groups such as Not One Seat, Co-operate for Canada, and Ontario Forward.

Here is what you can do with the provincial election under way.

1. Donate your $200 pre-election bribe from Doug Ford to a candidate or two which can defeat incumbent PC MPP’s and get $150 back next year during tax time. You can use this post to find out which ridings should be prioritized, as well as those progressives need to defend.
2. Go to Common Ground Ontario’s website which has a link to sign up to volunteer.
3. Access resources from Not One Seat for Toronto ridings, as well as Co-operate for Canada and Ontario Forward for those outside of Toronto.
4. Volunteer for candidates who can defeat PC’s or protect those ridings narrowly won by Liberals, NDP, or Greens. If you live in Downtown Toronto or other ridings where the PC’s don’t have a chance, please consider volunteering in other ridings.
5. Spread the word to your friends and family – especially those outside of Toronto – to encourage them to help defeat Doug Ford.

You can read Jun's take on yesterday's ride here as well as Bike Brampton's recap.