Meghan Waters

Ce sont des saskatoons et des cerises Nanking. Ma mère a des buissons qui donnent des fruits rouges et des fruits blancs.

It was inevitable that I should get into making jam. Jam is just sweet soup.

I feel like if you really love your sport…why not keep playing?

Listening to Andrew Single speak at Wpg council on the need for density, and I think he was really paying attention at Michel Durand-Wood’s book launch Saturday night!

We need to give them back the outdoors. And for that, it needs to be safer. That means reducing speed limits and having super harsh penalties for reckless driving. The youngest in our society are paying a huge price for the convenience that comes with cars and it doesn’t have to be this way.

Then we wonder why kids are so dependent on their adults, why they lack social skills, why they are uncreative, and lack the attention span to sit in class and learn academic skills.

Then these kids arrive at school coming down from screens like little addicts. They haven’t learnt the essential skills that are acquired in multi-aged groups of children in low supervision environments such as responsibility, independence, creativity, problem-solving.

Screens are highly stimulating and allow parents a break to catch up on chores, rest, do what they need to do to keep the home fires burning.

But suppers still need to be made, laundry folded, floors washed. Kids running around tend to mess with that but they can’t be left outside unsupervised. Enter screens.

They sent kids into their proper habitat: outside. But now we have built cities where outside isn’t safe. Parents don’t let their kids run up and down the street with low supervision like they used to, they have to be constantly vigilant.

What makes it feel small? The chaos that comes with 3 kids fucking shit up constantly. It’s a constant battle. How did the previous families deal with it?

But I don’t blame parents. I blame…*drumroll*…cars. Are parents lazier than they were 50 years ago and letting screens raise their kids? Don’t think so. I live in a house that was built in 1949. I imagine that there have been lots of families living in this very small house throughout the years.

Talk to most teachers, and they will say that something is changing in kids. I’ve noticed it in my ten years of teaching: kids just don’t have the same attention span that they used to. People like to throw around explanations like COVID or whatever but I think it’s screens.

Sometimes I wonder if people ever reflect on the quality of the outside when we have conversations about low academic scores in Manitoba students. I really think they are related. Hear me out.

We have to raise our sons better because holy hell a « that was pretty fucked up we should film her afterwards saying it’s all good » is a pretty sad reflection of how those guys think.

Does consent yesterday mean consent today? No? Correct. Here’s a cookie. Does consent with one hockey player mean consent for the whole team? No? Correct. Here’s a cookie.

Can someone withdraw consent at any time? Yes? Correct. Here’s a cookie. Does consent to one act mean consent to all sex acts? No? Correct. Here’s a cookie.

If anything, no matter the result of the trial, I hope people are talking to their sons. I know I have. Can someone consent if they are drunk? No? Correct. Here’s a cookie.

Maybe feel grateful for a sexual experience. Don’t ask if your whole team can join. Don’t ply a partner with alcohol. Don’t try to reenact porn scenes. Don’t be gross.

This could be uncomfortable or this could be painful and dangerous. I feel like many of us understand that mindset all too well.

How many women have been in a shitty situation and just went along with it because they were not sure if a withdrawal of consent would be respected?

Like, how many very large men were in this room? Call her a cab and ask her to leave if that’s the case. Don’t put your dick in someone who is allegedly hurting your feelings.

Anyone else following this hockey trial and just feeling a lot of rage? I think the two worst parts for me were this idea that she was insulting their masculinity and they didn’t actually want to do these acts.

When I ran, there were powerful moments of a mother walking hours with her baby on her back, trying to reach one voter at a time to shape a brighter future for her children. Use that power to help promote your party as one that props up women; that props up mothers; that props up families.
21/21

After the election, you should talk to your candidates and thank them for running. Take a minute, get through your list, make 15 calls a day till you’re done. It doesn’t have to be a long call, but a gesture really helps.
20/x

Speaking of the orange wave, that basically never happens. Elections are won through hard work, and through hitting the doors. Stop trying to make that happen again, I’d be shocked if I saw that again in my lifetime.
19/x

It’s extremely lacking in political aplomb to provide unilingual lit in those ridings and our party should know better. Maybe this attitude is why we lost so many of our gains in Quebec under the orange wave.
18/x

Most of the campaign literature I had to make myself using the colour palettes because the official stuff was either in French or in English. St B/St V is far from the only federal riding that is strongly bilingual.
17/x

If we want our party to be seen as a contender, we need to act like it. Be scrappy for a bit, but I don’t think it’s what you want to do for the whole debate if you want to be seen as someone people ought to follow.
16/x

Let’s build a movement, not just keep the lights on. This was evident to me during the debate, Singh was combative and fighting to get a word in edgewise. This didn’t come across to me as someone who have the confidence of a leader.
15/x