Leila

Trans/queer kids in BSD schools can rest a little easier knowing that their school division's board once again has one more trustee who has their backs.

In the 2023 by-election, Kara Morrice got 595 votes out of 3534 in Ward 1, while this time, Sieklicki got 462 votes out of 3930 - less votes in an election with higher ward turnout. Hopefully a sign that support for anti-queer candidates is slipping, but in any case:

🏳️‍⚧️ stay losing, Sieklicki 🏳️‍🌈

Church, candidate deny any connection to letter of support A letter of support for a school trustee candidate purporting to be from a Brandon church was not written or sanctioned by the church, a parish official told the Sun. The letter, written in support…

A letter of support for a school trustee candidate purporting to be from a Brandon church was not written or sanctioned by the church, a parish official told the Sun. www.brandonsun.com/local/2025/1... #bdnmb

I think the Sun softballed this one. There's no mention of *what* content (hint: queer/trans) he wanted banned from schools

His profile on brandon.ca/votes also says he wants to abolish municipal school taxes while also instituting universal free lunches for students, which comes off as unserious

The Dangerous Targeting of a Canadian Journalist | The Tyee After the murder of Charlie Kirk, conservatives piled on Rachel Gilmore for expressing a well-founded fear. Then came violent threats.

“We’ve crossed a dangerous line when it comes to threats against journalists for doing their jobs. It shouldn’t take an immense amount of bravery to state well-grounded views, and journalists should not have to fear for their lives after speaking up.”

#canpoli #uspoli #CdnMedia

Hey, remember 2023 and how tumultuous, but ultimately victorious, it was for trans kids in the Brandon School Division? Time for us all to show up again and make sure they get a trustee who works for them, instead of against them

#bdnmb #trans

they’re kidnapping trans women and forcing them to choose between male detention centers, where theyll be tortured, sexually abused and forcibly detransitioned, and leaving her whole life behind via self-deportation. but please go on with your “reasonable concerns” about trans rights

Come to think of it, Brandon School Division could have good opportunities for this too, with plenty of unused roof surface area on their school buildings. I hesitate to recommend solar carports, as we should have fewer cars and parking spaces in the first place, but that's also an option

From one angle, this could hopefully save some money on utility costs, which could be reinvested into other public goods. From another angle, it shows leadership and commitment to supporting renewable energy, at a time when MB Hydro is looking for ways to meet increased/future demand.

#bdnmb #urbanism hot take: city-owned properties should have solar panels on them. For instance, rooftop solar on City Hall, or on top of pavilions at parks to power the spray parks and lights, or at the Civic Services Complex, or a ground solar installation on reclaimed land at the landfill, or-

A sample game of The Fox in the Forest: Duet. There is a board with an S-shaped path and a player token in the middle space of that path, and several red gem tokens attached to the other spaces on that path. Two cards from the deck are laid out on one side, the 3 (Foxes) of Doves and the 9 (Royal Heir) of Roses, each with associated abilities printed on the cards.

The Fox in the Forest: Duet is everything that attracted me to OG Fox in the Forest, but in a co-op format that keeps things no more complex than needed. We won with 30 points on the easiest difficulty, which is great - I was expecting our first playthrough to go way worse. #boardgames

More of what I was talking about earlier. Good to see some public pushback #bdnmb #urbanism

Brandon's promoting a commuter challenge this week to encourage people to take their bikes to work, but won't actually build safe infrastructure for us to do it with. This also flies in the face of their new City Plan, which is supposed to encourage sustainable transportation

#urbanism #bdnmb

Love the implication from the city that "oh, those pesky cyclists? They're not from here, we can ignore them." This is on a street where (almost?) every house has a driveway, and the school has a parking lot (and a signaled crosswalk for walking there instead of driving)

#urbanism #bdnmb

A loaf of light brown bread with a fine, fairly uniform crumb and a darker brown, textured crust, lies on a cutting board with two slices taken out of it.

Cross-pollinated two of my usual recipes last night to create: chickpea beer bread. Baking is the best way to use up skunked-out IPA

#bdnmb #urbanism hot take: beg buttons (where walk signals don't show unless you press the button, and the button doesn't pre-empt the usual signal pattern) shouldn't exist. Looking at you:
- 13th and Park
- 1st and Kircaldy (which is a part of the City Loop bike path? Inexcusable!)

Bring your flags, your signs, your chants, your pride, your anger, your dreams - bring it all. We're here to stay, and we're building a better future together.

Brandon's second annual Trans Day of Action March. June 28th, 11am, Stanley Park. Trans rights are human rights!

A map of the planned route for the march. It begins in Stanley Park, proceeding in a loop on sidewalks, first west along Princess Avenue, then south along 18th Street, east along Victoria Avenue, north along 13th Street, and finally west along Princess Avenue and back to the park. Route length approx. 2 kilometres.

🏳️‍⚧️ Hey, everybody! Myself and several other people in/around Brandon are organizing our city's second-ever Trans Day of Action march this Saturday, June 28th at Stanley Park. Rally at 11am, we depart shortly after. Water/snacks provided.

#bdnmb #trans

A board for a game of RoboRally, with several features (conveyor belts, rotating gears, etc.) that alter the movement of the two robots on the board.

RoboRally is alright. I think I might just not be too into programming games. Although this was only a two-player game, so it could be more fun/chaotic at higher player counts #boardgames

The Yeti boss card from One Deck Dungeon, with several coloured dice covering areas of the card to defend against/do damage to it.

Haven't posted about One Deck Dungeon here yet? It's a great way to chuck a lot of dice, and the campaign mode makes things more interesting on repeated plays. Finally beat the Yeti, woo #boardgames

How Did This Suburb Figure Out Mass Transit? Transit ridership is off the charts in Brampton, Ontario, despite its typical low-density suburban layout. Here’s how the city got residents to get on the bus.

I've written an article on the extraordinary transit success of Brampton, how it was achieved, and the lessons it has for other suburban areas in North America. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Making the streets two-way would also serve as a traffic calming measure, and therefore, maybe more pedestrian-friendly?

Even without adding separated bike lanes or reducing street parking, I think this would do downtown Brandon some good

A map of two streets, Princess Avenue, running one way to the west, and Rosser Avenue, running one way to the east, next to each other and between two north-south streets, 18th Street (to the west) and 1st Street (to the east).

As they are now, as one-ways going opposite directions of each other, they're two halves of a thoroughfare that just shuttles people between 1st and 18th Streets, while making it harder to go places downtown. If downtown is to be a destination, this only gets in the way of that

One of my #bdnmb #urbanism hot takes is that, barring any other improvements, Princess Ave and Rosser Ave should be made two-way streets

The board/table for a finished game of Ark Nova. Several animal, sponsor, research, and objective cards, and blue and red pieces for each player, are strewn about the table.

Been a hot minute since I played Ark Nova. I think +37 is the best score I've ever had

#boardgames

Looking for a vegan 'za in Brandon that's truer to form, as most know it? If money is no object, Little Italy kicks all sorts of butt. If money is indeed an object, Red Swan (a chain) has yet to let me down

(Now, if only there was this much competition for other vegan foods in Brandon...)

Meanwhile, most pizza joints try to make the best archetypical "pizza", but Chez Angela puts all its stat points into the crust (playing to their strengths as a bakery). No recognizable "cheez" or sauce, either. It eats like a really good flatbread seasoned with garden salad and balsamic dressing

Chez Angela's #vegan pizza is the Nintendo Wii of vegan pizza in #bdnmb. Let me explain: while the PS3 and Xbox 360 were competing on the same merits - graphical fidelity, games that appeal to "gamers", and so on - the Wii was doing its own thing and making itself appealing in a different way

A whole loaf of bread made with chickpea flour, seasoned with rosemary, sits on top of a wooden cutting board.

The loaf cut open, revealing the crumb (and some internal tear marks from me getting it out of the pan).

Been a hot minute since I made chickpea bread. I should up my bread production

We did it, finally! Major victory for #urbanism in Brandon, sometimes in the face of opposition from the "15-minute city" conspiracy theorist crowd. Hoping this makes for a more walkable, bikeable, transit-able Brandon in the future #bdnmb #manitoba