Join us for an enlightening roundtable panel discussion as we delve into “The Benefits of Connecting Canadians” study. This new report finds that the Trans Canada Trail plays a pivotal role in bolstering Canada’s economy and tourism sectors, and has beneficial impacts on Canada’s healthcare system and environment.
Trans Canada Trail’s President & CEO, Eleanor McMahon hosts this edition of Trail Talk Live. She is joined by two leading experts in their field, Janet Sumner, the Executive Director of the Wildlands League and Dr. Jane Thornton, a Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician and former Olympian.
Trail Talk Live is generously supported by TD Bank Group.
Une édition française de Parlons Sentier en direct, animée par Mathieu Roy, qui sera accompagné par les deux experts spécialisés Laura Ducharme et François Duclos, est disponible ici.
Eleanor McMahon
President, Trans Canada Trail
Eleanor McMahon has over 35 years’ experience within the private, public and non-profit sectors. She spent the early years of her career working on Parliament Hill, including as press secretary to the Rt. HonourableJean Chrétien. Later, she brought her consensus-building know-how to a variety of other roles, including Director of Public Affairs at the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Vice-President at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Vice-President at United Way Ottawa. She was the MPP for Burlington, Ontario, from 2014 to 2018, and served as Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, as well as President of the Treasury Board.
Janet Sumner
Executive Director, CPAWS Wildlands League
Janet Sumner has more than 30 years’ experience working as an environmental leader. For twenty years she has been the Executive Director of the Wildlands League; a chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).
Janet’s work has touched on many environmental issues, from pesticide use and climate change to waste reduction and pollution in the Great Lakes. Her passion though is the carbon cycle and the intersection with traditional wilderness conservation. She believes the solutions to climate change include protecting the world’s most vast terrestrial carbon stores residing in the Boreal ecosystem. Ms. Sumner is an expert negotiator, strategist and communicator with extensive policy reform experience.
In 2017, Janet was appointed by Catherine McKenna, then Minister of Environment and Climate Change as co-chair of the National Advisory Panel (NAP) with a mandate to provide recommendations on how to protect 17% of Canada’s terrestrial lands and inland waters by 2020; and, in 2019 Janet was appointed Minister McKenna as the Special Representative on Nature for Canada.
Dr. Jane Thornton
Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician
Dr. Thornton is a Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician and Clinician Scientist specializing in long-term athlete health and physical activity in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. She is a Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, with cross appointments in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Department of Kinesiology.
She is President elect of the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM), and a senior editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM). She is also a member of the Board of Directors for ParticipACTION.
Dr. Thornton represented Canada for over a decade in the sport of rowing, becoming both a World Champion (2006) and Olympian (2008). She now treats athletes and active individuals of all ages and abilities and advocates for movement as medicine.
