Mapping the 2015 Canadian federal election

During the 2015 federal election, I did a lot of work mapping ridings and results. I combined information from Elections Canada and GeoGratis to make the maps — a process that required knowledge of Excel spreadsheets, QGIS software and Google Fusion Tables.

Unfortunately, Google has discontinued Fusion Tables, and the maps are no longer available online, but they allowed users to see colour-coded riding-by-riding results across the country. I also made a Vancouver Island map that broke results down by poll, so you could see which party got votes in different areas.

The Show Must Go On

January 5, 2011 | Momentum Magazine 

“I don’t even remember sleeping last night,” says Brendt Barbur. That’s because on the September day when I managed to get him on the phone he’s running on two hours of sleep – caught between two overseas phone calls at 5:30 and 7:30 in the morning – and trying to deal with a problem in Korea, where his Bicycle Film Festival headed in October.

It’s one of 40 cities the festival hit in 2010, its 10th year. By the time it wrapped up, Barbur had circled the globe – he estimates that he was attending 75 percent of this year’s events. (He attended every event until 2008, when he didn’t go to an after after party.)

It’s a grueling schedule, and one that might be wearing him down: He told festival-goers in New York in June that 2010 was going to be BFF’s last year.

“It came after not sleeping for two weeks,” he says of the statement. “It’s a lot of work, and not what I want to do with my life.”

Da Gryptions Ride Bixi Rap Into Summer

June 23, 2010 | Momentum Magazine | Online here

Patrick Guay, Trevor Barnes and Evan Cranley of Montreal group Da Gryptions. Photo courtesy Da Gryptions.

Since going live on YouTube June 8, The Bixi Anthem, Da Gryptions’ ode to Montreal’s bike-share program, has garnered more than 10,000 hits and is being heralded by some as the city’s “song of the summer.”

“Not,” says lead rapper Patrick Guay, aka Dark Science, “that Bixi needs the help being cool.”

The program, which celebrated its first anniversary in May, has nearly 5,000 bikes at 400 stations around the city. For $5 for 24 hours, $28 a month or $78 a year, Montrealers can borrow a bike for up to 30 minutes (longer rides accrue additional fees). Riders seem to be on board with it – by the end of October, 10,000 people had signed up for the program, and made more than 1,000,000 trips.

With that kind of following, Guay isn’t surprised at the popularity of The Bixi Anthem video. “We knew from the beginning that we had something,” he says. “People reacted to it.”