S3E1 – When work keeps families apart

In Atlantic Canada, long-distance commuting for work is a daily reality for many families, particularly those living in rural areas. Families can be separated for weeks, months, or sometimes even years, with loved ones working away and their families keeping life moving along at home.

Atlantic Canadian families living with long-distance commutes tend to face many of the same challenges. Many have developed formal and informal ways of dealing with the, often invisible, pressures of separation. In this episode of Rural Routes, we speak to community leaders, researchers, and people with lived experience about how long-distance commuting can affect families, about the networks and supports that those people are building and about ways these families and those who serve them might benefit from more support.

This episode of Rural Routes is based on interviews with researchers, mobile workers and their family members done at the Families, Work and Mobility Symposium in Prince Edward Island. The symposium happened because so many people lead organizer Christina Murray spoke with during her research told her, “I wish there was an opportunity for people to come together to talk about this issue and how it impacts me, my family and my community.”

Resources:
Families, Work, and Mobility
On the Move Partnership
Vanier Family Foundation
Christina Murray

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

S2E15 – Self-care: Rural doctors support each other

Being doctor in a rural community has unique challenges; from knowing too much about your friends and neighbours, to being the first line of defense in difficult life or death situations, it can be hard to find someone who really understands. This time on Rural Routes, we listen in on a group of four women, each practising in, or with experience in, rural Ontario communities, whose informal support network has become a crucial line of support, both in terms of their work and their lives. Join us as they laugh about their experiences, share their most challenging experiences, and explain why, despite the distance between them and their busy schedules, they make time to connect.

Resources:
Society of Rural Physicians of Canada
Rural Road Map for Action (PDF)

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

S2E13 – National Parks and protected areas Pt. 1

When it comes to Canadian identity, the popular imagination summons forests, wildlife, and untouched nature that goes on forever. In some ways, our national parks reflect that idyllic picture; however, in other ways, they are complex, complicated, and contested. Join us for the first in a two-part look at how our national parks are created, who determines what we do with our natural spaces, and the impact that parks have on the people who live in and around them. We’ll chat with Dr. Phillip Vannini, Dr. Alistair Bath, Dr. John Calder and Colleen Kennedy.

Resources and links:

Dr. Phillip Vannini
Dr. Alistair Bath
Dr. John Calder
Gros Morne National Park
Gros Morne Cooperators
Joggins Fosile Site
Mistaken Point 
The National Park of Abruzzo

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

S2E11-Opioid crisis in rural Canada – Pt. II

The opioid crisis impacts hundreds of thousands of lives across North America and rural areas are increasingly at risk. To investigate the impacts of opioids in rural contexts, we’re presenting a special two-episode edition of Rural Routes, featuring stories from both individuals and institutions with experience on the frontlines of the rural opioid crisis. These difficult and sometimes inspiring stories address important questions about the fight against opioid addiction; are rural communities disproportionately affected? How are individuals and institutions working, or not working, to help communities heal? Is enough being done? In this last part of our look at the opioid crisis you will hear from Michele Specht and Jodi Salvo from Ohio, Dr. Tara Gomes from Toronto, Mae Katt from Thunder Bay, and Justice Peter Wright from Perth, Ontario.

Resources and links:

Michele Specht bio
Anti-drug coalition Tuscarawas County
Dr. Tara Gomes profile at St. Michael’s Hospital
Mae Katt profile at Families for Addiction Recovery

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

S2E10-Opioid crisis in rural Canada – Pt. I

The opioid crisis impacts hundreds of thousands of lives across North America and rural areas are increasingly at risk. To investigate the impacts of opioids in rural contexts, we’re presenting a special two-episode edition of Rural Routes, featuring stories from both individuals and institutions with experience on the frontlines of the rural opioid crisis. These difficult and sometimes inspiring stories address important questions about the fight against opioid addiction; are rural communities disproportionately affected? How are individuals and institutions working, or not working, to help communities heal? Is enough being done? In this we hear stories of personal challenge and determination from Stephen Miller, a recovering user and vivid storyteller, and Susan Boone and Brian Reese, whose personal experiences led them to organize a community-based harm reduction program on a small island off the coast of Newfoundland.

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

S2E9 – Fantasy Farming

While the numbers of farms in North America are decreasing every year, virtual farms are thriving. What does the bounty of farming related computer, video and mobile games say about the urban-rural divide? Are they just dumb time wasters, or could they actually be used to help create both knowledge and understanding? Join us for a (slightly goofy) chat about virtual pigs and cows, and the millions of people playing them. Our guests include video game researcher and film and media studies professor Dr. Alenda Chang of University of California, Santa Barbara and gamer Andrew Cohoe. We’ll also ask Jane Tucker, originally of Southern Ontario, but now living in St. Philips, Newfoundland and Labrador, what puts her town on the map.

Resources

Wireframe lab

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

 

EPISODE 15: Community development with Wendy Keats

Wendy Keats is the executive director of the Co-operative Enterprise Council of New Brunswick. We talked about the ground level view of co-ops and social enterprises in rural areas and the need for good legislative support to help them grow and prosper.

Resources:

Co-operative Enterprise Council of New Brunswick

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

EPISODE 13: Rural Immigration with Michael Haan

“Canada is a land of immigrants” is a phrase we hear often. And while that is certainly true in many ways, immigration is a complex issue we don’t spend nearly as much time talking about as we should. Michael Haan is Canada Research Chair in Immigration and Ethnic Relations at Western University in London, Ontario, and he spends a lot of time thinking about immigration in Canada, especially rural Canada. I had an opportunity to talk to Dr. Haan last fall in his office at Western University. This is a part of that conversation.

 

Resources: 
Dr. Michael Haan’s faculty profile
On the Move Partnership

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

EPISODE 12: Building homes in Alaska

Ryan Gibson comes back on Rural Routes to tell us how a group of Alaskan researchers is trying to solve housing issues in rural and remote regions of America’s most northern states. They also tell us about their connections to Canada and we learn about honey buckets. And they are definitely not what their name would imply .

Resources: 
Cold Climate housing Research Centre

Sustainable Futures North

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

EPISODE 10: On writing rural with Michael Crummey

After a bit of a summer hiatus, we are back on air. The Episode 10 features a conversation with Newfoundland writer Micheal Crummey. He has written extensively about rural and rural cultural experiences particularly in Newfoundland. His recent novel Sweetland stands out as one of the few Canadian novels about a contemporary rural that is very much recognizable as such. In this episode, Michael Crummy reflects on growing up in rural mining towns and why writing honestly about contemporary rural goes against human nature.

NOTE: A small language warning on this episode – it got a bit saltier than usual, but nothing terrible or that you or I haven’t said or heard before.