Latest news with #Fredericton-based
CBC
14-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Drag the Vote event in N.B. encourages 2SLGBTQ+ people to cast ballot in federal election
Social Sharing Mitchell Goodine has an urgent message during this federal election campaign: Get out and vote. Goodine is a Fredericton-based ambassador for Drag the Vote, a national campaign to engage 2SLGBTQ+ people and their allies to exercise their right to vote. "We felt the tides turning and the energy shifting and wanted to get the queer community and in general, the youth and anybody in the community out to vote," said Goodine, also known as the drag performer Amour Love. "It's not switching voters from blue to red, it's just simply switching from non-voter to voter." Goodine, who hosted a Drag the Vote event in Oromocto on the weekend, said they are concerned about children's rights and any policy that could restrict them from being themselves. "What we're frustrated about is not simply just having a queer voice or having queer rights. It's not having science-led policies and procedures, having faith-based decisions," they said. They said that this change needs to be made from the "top down" to influence change. "If the tone from the top says that I shouldn't be able to exist or the way that I exist is too loud and too proud, and I should be over there quietly behind closed doors with their restrictions and with their preferences, that's going to echo all the way down," said Goodine. Connor Hibbs is also an ambassador for Drag the Vote and shares Goodine concerns. Hibbs fears that recent changes to trans rights in the U.S. could also happen in Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump declared in his inaugural address on Jan. 20 that "it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female." "I'm worried about losing our rights completely and not being able to do drag because drag is my happy place," said Hibbs. He got involved with Drag the Vote to "get people out and inform them" about the election. Kendra Mackie of Cambridge Narrows, who has partner and a baby, said she worries about her human rights everyday. She hopes that whoever is elected will respect her family and acknowledge that they exist. "I can't imagine there being a government that just acknowledges that trans people don't exist and it's made-up. Like, I don't even want to really think about it," said Mackie. The federal election is set for April 28. Advance polls open on April 18.
CBC
13-04-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Maple syrup season in New Brunswick is sweet as ever
Social Sharing Like the syrup itself, amateur and commercial maple syrup producers are gushing this year. Stephen Heard is a Fredericton-based professor of biology and a maple syrup lover. He had a slow start to the year but said that things have really turned around. "I thought it was going to be a complete write off. The first few weeks I tapped were terrible," Heard said. "Either it didn't cool down enough at night or it didn't warm up enough during the day. And I just got dribbles and dribbles of sap." Then, things changed. "The floodgates opened and it's been pretty good since," Heard said. "I've had several days when from my eight taps I bring in 30-35 litres of sap in a day." That amount of sap boils down to produce about 19 litres of maple syrup. He said that in his worst year he produced only eight or nine litres of syrup and in his best year — 2018 — he produced 29. "We made 29 litres of syrup from our four trees, which was amazing. It just wouldn't ever stop, it just kept gushing out." He said that the biggest difference between a good and bad year is the weather. In 2018, "we had just week after week of perfect sap weather," which he said is -4 C or -5 C at night and 5 C or 6 C during the day. "And it just repeats. And it was amazing." This year, he said, the weather wasn't right at first but then shifted and was pretty close to perfect, but it's a short season. Before too long, "the holes that I drilled will stop yielding because the tree will start to heal and when the buds start to burst, then the syrup has an off flavour. You don't want that. So there is an end date, but we're not there yet." He has five maple trees in his backyard, four of which he taps yearly. For him, the process is simple. "Every afternoon, I go out with a bucket full of empty pop bottles and fill them with the sap," Heard said. "And then I boil, boil, boil, boil, boil." The New Brunswick Maple Syrup Association, which describes itself as the voice of the province's maple syrup industry, started in 2003 with 15 members but now represents more than 150 across the province. Frédérick Alain Dion, the association's general director, said the start dates vary, depending on where in the province you are — earlier in the south and later in the north. He said this year the season started at the end of February and early March. And there was a "crazy week" about three weeks ago where temperatures were perfect and trees were giving sap for 80 to 90 hours nonstop, Dion said. Maple syrup season will be coming to an end in the south in the next two weeks, based on word from southern producers. Heard grew up watching his father help a friend who ran a large sugar bush and remembers the old-fashioned evaporators "with billows of steam" and people throwing "lengths of wood into the boiler underneath." He said he can't quite produce that experience with his backyard operation but it's still worth the effort. There's just something "magic about making syrup in your own backyard," he said. He called the process amazing and described the smell that fills the house while the sap boils as "marvellous." For his family, backyard tapping is a spring family tradition that he, his wife and his son all look forward to.
CBC
24-03-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Snow on way to N.B., but it's not likely to stick around
Social Sharing Winter isn't over yet for New Brunswick, despite some double-digit temperatures and sunny days this month. Environment Canada has issued snowfall warnings for a large chunk of the province, excluding much of the north. Jill Maepea, a Fredericton-based meteorologist with Environment Canada, said a quick-moving system is going to bring about 15 centimetres of snow to an area bordered roughly by St. Stephen in the southwest through Fredericton and east up to Miramichi. On either side of that line, in areas including Woodstock, Florenceville-Bristol, Saint John, Moncton and Cap-Pelé, closer to 10 centimetres of snow is expected, Maepea said. The snow is expected to begin later Monday afternoon and continue through early Tuesday morning. According to the statements and warnings from Environment Canada, the snow will be mixed with ice pellets near the Fundy Coast and there's also a risk of freezing rain. Maepea said March as a month is typically the transition from the winter to spring, so it is not uncommon to have highly variable conditions such as those New Brunswickers have been seeing. "We will see these warm spells; we'll also see these cold spells," Maepea said. And while it will snow overnight, temperatures are expected to rise above the zero mark again on Tuesday, she said, leading much of that snow to melt quite quickly. The Monday into Tuesday storm is part of a larger system, said Maepea, but there is a chance of some lighter precipitation throughout this week. "We won't see a lot of sunshine and those warmer temperatures," she said.
