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Power Crunch: Canada's fitness czar walks the talk

SABITRI GHOSH

From Monday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 11:01 AM EDT 14/05/08

ParticipAction CEO Kelly Murumets's biggest workout challenge: being on the road ...Read the full article

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  1. Cycling Commuter from Canada writes: Build more sidewalks, bike paths, and pedestrian/bike overpasses/underpasses and people will automatically get lots more exercise without being nagged. Boulder Colorado's 100,000 residents have 360 miles of bike paths and 64 underpasses, so cyclists need not stop when they reach an intersection. Colorado has the lowest rate of obesity in the U.S. See: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/08/27/obesity.colorado/index.html The $5 million wasted on Participaction advertising won't convince people to exercise if safe facilities are not there. Since safe walking and cycling infrastructure costs a lot LESS to build and maintain compared to extra lanes for cars and multimillion dollar recreation centres in each neighborhood, building such infrastructure is a good way to LOWER taxes. In my neighborhood, we don't even have sidewalks in front of our houses, but we are forced to pay sky-high property taxes to cover construction and maintenace costs of a sumptuous 10 million dollar municipal recreation centre. My neighbors climb into their noisy, smelly SUVs to drive 3 blocks to the shopping centre or take their kids to school 2 blocks away. Then every couple of weeks they drive 4 blocks to the rec centre to spend a few hours there before they drop into a drive-through to stuff their faces with lard on the way home. They would get a lot more exercise just walking their kids to school weekdays and walking to the shopping centre on weekends. Municipal zoning laws should be changed to go back to building garages in back alleys instead of in front of houses. Even on low-traffic residential streets with sidewalks, pedestrians are in danger of being run over by huge SUVs suddenly backing out of driveways in front of houses. Verandas in front of houses make neighborhoods friendlier and safer. When many residents spend evenings on their front verandas, all the eyes watching the street dissuade street crime. This makes walking and cycling more popular too.
  2. S ilver from Canada writes: This woman is a very bad example for Participaction to hold up to us. I would say they're not spending my tax dollars wisely if this is their idea of someone to run this taxpayer corp. This person is the antithesis of what they purport to foster.
  3. Doug - from Somewhere, Canada writes: S ilver from Canada writes: This woman is a very bad example for Participaction to hold up to us. I would say they're not spending my tax dollars wisely if this is their idea of someone to run this taxpayer corp. This person is the antithesis of what they purport to foster.

    Please explain that statement, does she make you feel bad as she works at amintaining her fitness level?

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