Meet BETH MAIRS

Passionate Leader & Community Builder

A Little Bit About Beth

Beth is a notable, respected progressive voice in Sudbury. Her activism and effectiveness on the issues she tackles: be it social inequality, addictions, workers’ rights, women’s and LGBTQ issues, Beth’s track-record and quiet leadership is well known in the grassroots. Beth has fought hard to create space and to give voice to lesser heard voices and marginalized people through-out her careers in both the private and public spheres. She doesn’t critique from the sidelines: in Beth, Sudbury has come to know a woman of action, of alliance-building, and of solutions.

PROFESSIONAL BIO

Beth is well-known as a community leader and innovator in many aspects of her public life. Her work on the front lines of the anti-poverty movement in Ontario in the 80s built into a significant contribution to the fields of health promotion and community development in Ontario in the 90s. Her book, Helping Seniors Mobilize - A Handbook on Community Organizing was a game changer through-out the province in using community development as a health promotion strategy. Beth headed north in 1990 to fulfill her passion for wilderness adventure, and developed what became the largest outdoor adventure company for women in Canada. She is widely acknowledged as a trailblazer for women in the outdoor industry as well as a sought-after speaker and trainer in tourism in North America. For her entrepreneurial skills, she has garnered several business awards. She sold her outdoor company in 2010 to pursue independent filmmaking and writing for film and stage. She has devoted much time and energy to creating and running Northeastern Ontario’s first not-for-profit independent cinema. Sudbury Indie Cinema is a co-op whose mission is programme give lesser heard voices on the big screen. Through Beth’s programming priorities, finally Sudbury has year-round access to stories from women, Indigenous, francophone, LGBTQ directors, plus foreign film, Canadian, and documentary. Beth has also ensured that “The Indie” is an inclusive space for other not-for-profits, community causes, and emerging arts groups.

POLITICAL RUNS

In spring 2017, Beth sought the NDP nomination to run in Sudbury Riding provincially. She ran against Jamie West, a Steelworker, and Carol Mulligan, a recently retired Sudbury Star journalist. Beth was runner-up to Jamie West in the final ballot. Jamie West went on to win the seat in the 2018 election and is serving as Sudbury’s MPP.

In 2019, Beth announced her intention to seek the federal nomination to run for Sudbury Riding. She was uncontested and went on to run a strong campaign against Liberal Incumbent, Paul Lefebvre, a tax lawyer. Beth was runner-up to Paul Lefebvre with a margin of 12% less of the popular quote. As the incumbent’s advantage is typically weighted with a 15% advantage and given the Sudbury Liberals spend 3xs on their campaign, the NDP campaign was heralded a great success.

In 2021, Beth is again throwing her hat in the ring to secure the NDP federal nomination in a contested race.

Testimonials

History

  • 1980s

    ANTI-POVERTY ACTIVISM

    Beth graduates from Carlton with a Masters of Social Work in 1984.

    - various campaigns to seek legislative change on provincial welfare policies working with Human Rights legislation, and Queens Park critics

    - research assistant to Dr. Gillian Walker based out of NDP Social + Health Critic, Richard Johnston's Queens Park office

    - staffs a 5 year multi-pronged health promotion project to address health inequities with sole-support parents on social assistance

    - heads a province-wide campaign to engage Ontario's MPP's in a daylong experiential workshop to leverage major legislative changes

  • 1990s

    COMMUNITY HEALTH: COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

    Beth shifts into the community health field

    - develops innovative approach to health through neighbourhood organizing with low income seniors

    - Mairs Model of Community Mobilization recognized as innovative health promotion strategy

    -authors a book & trained community health workers across the province

    - shifts into women's health working on province-wide initiatives such as the Breast Cancer Networking Project & Ontario Women's Health Network

  • 2000s

    ECO-ADVENTURE TOURISM

    Beth's Sudbury-based canoe tripping business expands

    - from seasonal to year-round,from Northern Ontario to 8 provinces

    - travel media recognizes women's travel leading as hottest tourism niche in North America

    - Beth becomes a popular trainer in niche marketing, trends, adventure travel, and media relations

  • 2010s

    INDEPENDENT FILM/ARTS AND CULTURE

    At the 20 year mark, Beth sells her tourism business and launches into filmmaking

    - organizes professional development opportunities for locals to assume key creative roles in filmmaking

    - spearheads development of Northern Ontario's first not-for-profit independent cinema

    - brings innovative world-class programming to Sudbury and launches several unique regional film festivals

    - Beth emerges as a strong player and advocate in Sudbury's downtown arts and culture sector

  • 2020s

    INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY SPACE

    Beth focusses on strengthening Indie Cinema as a community hub

    - The programming at Indie Cinema expands to bring artists, activists, and emerging organizations together at a friendly accessible venue

    - Under Beth’s direction, the Indie plays a key role during the pandemic as a community space for community connections through the arts and activism.

Some of Beth's Achievements

Beth In the News

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  • May 2021

Beth organizes campaign to support Sudbury’s Overdose Prevention Site

"Beth Mairs, a STOPS members since the fall of 2019, was recently tapped to set up a GoFundMe drive to sustain the group’s efforts.

“I think we can all agree that essential, life-saving health care should not be funded by crowdsourcing, but here we are,” said Mairs.

It’s why the group is also asking the Sudbury community to help push for a more permanent, funded solution to overdose prevention.

STOPS is calling on the city to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency in order to escalate the municipal response to the situation. They are asking residents to join them in this push by emailing Mayor Brian Bigger at Mayor@greatersudbury.ca."

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  • March 2021

Beth exposes Liberal Party connections to rot at Laurentian in Op Ed for Sudbury Star

"Since the Ontario Liberals lost power both locally and provincially in the 2018 election, it’s less top-of-mind to see the hold Liberal insiders have had historically in Sudbury on our public institutions, like Laurentian and Health Sciences North.

Laurentian’s CEO from 2009-17, Dominic Giroux, provided sworn testimony at the Sudbury byelection election fraud trial of how he stickhandled Glenn Thibeault’s defection from the federal NDP to be acclaimed as the riding’s provincial Liberal candidate, interceding on Thibeault’s behalf with then-premier Kathleen Wynne.

LU’s board of governors’ chair, Claude Lacroix, a board member since 2006, has a robust donor relationship with the federal Liberals. He financially backed the Marc Serre (Nickel Belt MP) and Paul Lefebvre (Sudbury MP) campaigns in 2015 and 2019.

Perhaps the partisan nature of the perceived failure of past LU senior management explains why we have heard nothing but crickets from our sitting federal members. There is a case to be made the federal government could step in to help Laurentian – yet we see or hear nothing from them on the matter.”
– Sudbury Star Opinion Column March 30, 2021

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  • April 2021

Beth speaks out on potential loss of Gender Studies at Laurentian

Community member Beth Mairs the program is a key to the future of gender equity in the North. “Women’s and Gender Studies isn’t just a program, it is a network of advocates, employers, and families, who care about these things,” she said.

Community member Beth Mairs the program is a key to the future of gender equity in the North. “Women’s and Gender Studies isn’t just a program, it is a network of advocates, employers, and families, who care about these things,” she said.

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  • June 2017

On Progressive Change

“Fifty years later and we see in plain view the very real efforts of right-wing political and fundamentalist groups to roll back rights and freedoms in North America,” she explains. “And certainly, we see the state-supported persecution of LGBTQ peoples growing in many parts of the world.” We have not progressed as far as we may like to think, Mairs adds, and we need to look back in order to learn and to really move forward.

“The assumption of progress and greater inclusivity of marginalized groups — like queer people — as human history moves forward is an assumption that is proving to be false,” she says. “Human rights are fragile even in established democracies. So, commemorating the Stonewall riots can no longer be some measuring stick of past intolerance from which we mark ‘how far we have come.’ To navigate forward in troubling times, we do well to look back to learn from history — from community leaders and trailblazers, from movements of resistance, from what people who have next to zero social capital can do to rock the system and shift society. The vanguard of Stonewall was not affluent white men, nor closeted professional women from the suburbs; it was Black and Indigenous trans-people. That, in and of itself, is a lesson.”
– Sudbury Star June 13, 2019.

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  • June 2017

Sudbury Indie Cinema

Beth, rather good-naturedly and with her signature calm, describes the last few days ahead of opening Indie Cinema, in the midst of renovations with a film festival. Source CBC Rdaio One Morning North Feb. 26, 2019

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  • June 2017

Calling Out HSN’s Executives on Laundry Worker Decision

“ It seems that when Health Science North decided to kill the laundry, they had no idea the service and its workers were so valued and cared about by the Sudbury community. Despite help being available; despite local vision and leadership; and despite the hardship of Sudbury families directly affected by the layoffs and the burden passed on to all residents of Greater Sudbury, Health Science North has stayed its course.

This reminds me of a caller to a CBC radio show where a dog owner thought she should have her trusted canine put down since she had decided she could no longer keep him. Imagine her surprise when the expert bluntly suggested her ignorance and egotism in not seeing a life for her loyal companion without her.

I still say: we can turn this around, Sudbury.”
– Sudbury Star Guest Column March 30, 2017

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