Gianne, Sheldon, Sandra, Chantelle and Rayf, November 27, 2018

On November 27, the membership elected new executive officers to lead us through 2019. What a great crew!

These talented people have been contributing to the local association’s efforts for some time, and recently found that they were ready to take a leadership role. Making an association run is about cool and creative ideas, and it is about slogging through the details. A big thank-you and a wish that you may enjoy seeing your ideas realized goes out to each of them.



Gianne Broughton  (President, GPC)

Gianne is a pro-active globally-minded person who champions local community innovation and responsible development. She has a master’s degree in Rural Planning and Development and attended Trent University for Native Studies. 

She was coordinator for the Quaker Peace and Sustainable Communities program of Canadian Friends Service Committee for 17 years.  During that time, she provided administrative and planning support to community-based peacebuilding groups in some of the most difficult places in the world: D. R. Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda; Cambodia; Palestine/Israel.  In 2005, she went to Burundi for a year to establish the first Quaker Peacebuilding Office in Central Africa when the war was still going on. 

In 2008, in response to an in-depth study of ocean acidification, an effect of pollution and global warming that will lead to the extinction of oxygen-breathing life if unchecked, she began volunteering for the Green Party.  Since then she has served local constituency associations as Chief Financial Officer in Ottawa and in Peterborough. She was the local Green Party candidate for the provincial election of June 2018.

She moved to Peterborough in 2015 to help support aging parents living in Toronto.  She started a tutoring business teaching English and French and Overcoming Dyslexia in either language which has blossomed.  Being self-employed allows her to devote significant time to developing the local Green Party team. Her son manages a high-end restaurant in the Caribbean.

Chantelle Gray-Wheeler  (Secretary, GPC)

Chantelle is an Environmental Science graduate of Trent University who is now working for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Previously she worked as a researcher on water issues for a local Indigenous Peoples organization. She has been serving as Secretary on the GPO and GPC executive since February 2018.

Sheldon Rooney (Communications Chair)

Sheldon is in his second year of undergrad studies at Trent University in Environmental Science. He is the president of the Trent Green Party and the communications director for the Trent Outdoors club. He also plays hockey for the Trent extramural team and works at the on-campus pub. He grew up in a small rural town and was gifted with the opportunity to grow a relationship with nature. He has a deep passion for the environment and “helping people smile when I can,” as he says,  “Everyone can make a difference, everyone is worth something.”

Rief Greens 2019

Rayf (Ralph) Shiell (Financial Agent, GPC)

Rayf Shiell is a physics professor at Trent University who brings experience from the universities of Oxford, Newcastle and Sussex in the UK, Waterloo in Canada, UC Berkeley in the States, and the Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands. As a parent and an educator he advocates for lasting and comprehensive sustainability, where society and the environment are together viewed with long-term health and vibrancy in mind. He believes that future generations, wherever they may live, deserve dialogue today that embraces empathic and rational thinking, a commitment to fairness, and a long-term vision for the future. As a science instructor he conveys the importance of considering all consequences – intended and unintended – before proposing a particular plan of action for each matter at hand. He thus welcomes open dialogue and discussion towards the ultimate goal of achieving lasting human and environmental wellness.

Sandra Greens 2019

Sandra Hay (Organization Chair, GPC)

Sandra values the Green Party’s commitment to sound and well-researched policy initiatives, good governance, fiscal responsibility, and environmental protection.

Sandra grew up working on her family’s large fruit farm and market garden operation in Brighton, Ontario. Curiosity and a love of learning has directed her involvement in a number of diverse industries over the years. After high school she graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor in Agricultural Science (more than a few moons ago) and worked with Agriculture Canada researching integrated pest management to reduce pesticide use in fruit orchards.

Following that Sandra started a pick-your-own berry operation from scratch, and was a provincial director with Farmers’ Markets Ontario. Over the years she has also worked for an environmental consulting company, been involved in rural economic development in Eastern Ontario and for a little while owned and operated her own retail kitchen garden shop. She recently moved to Peterborough from Barrie, Ontario. In Barrie she was involved in the real estate and mortgage industries and served on the executive of the Barrie Greens. Some of her interests are food sustainability and self-sufficiency, balanced land use planning, and researching natural health products.

Living in Peterborough allows Sandra closer access to aging parents. Her eldest son graduated from teacher’s college in 2006 and taught in the fly-in only community of Wapekeka First Nation before he settled in Sioux Lookout, as the non-clinical instructor at the local hospital. Her second son completed a Masters degree at Wilfrid Laurier University and is employed as an institutional research analyst at Conestoga College.