Bird, Brad

Manitoba, Brandon - Souris, Green Party of Canada

I was born in London, Ont., on January 27, 1959. My father was a teacher and a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, my mother, a homemaker. After high school I attended and graduated from Brandon University, and went on to do a master's degree in Journalism at the University of Western Ontario. I worked for the Winnipeg Free Press from 1984-1986.

A yearning to see the world took me away from Winnipeg and into North Africa and Europe, when I reported on events for John Dafoe, then editorial page editor of he Winnipeg editor of the Winnipeg Free Press. I also have a passion for canoeing, and have paddled the length of North America, from York Factory to New Orleans. I have produced a book, Nickel Trip, about my father's war-time and peace-time career as a pilot. For 11 years I have resided at Lake Metigoshe in southwestern Manitoba, where I work seasonally as interpreter for Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, write and work on farms.

On June 1, 2005, I will graduate from the University of Manitoba with an MA in Political Studies (International Affairs). During the course of that degree I also taught as a teaching assistant. On April 24 I completed a 1,635-kilometre trek by foot from my home to Churchill on Hudson Bay. Border to the Bay has raised about $12,000 for heart and stroke research for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba. Having studied Aristotle, I believe in public service and hold up my Bay Walk as the best example of this in my life to date.

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