Charlottetown

Joe Byrne is an interesting man, and truly a good man.

He’s good in the sense of principled, compassionate and committed to community service, especially for those who find it hard to take advantage of the blessings most of us have here.  He’s good, too, in the sense of effective: he is personally connected with hundreds of people; he has a flair for talking with and listening to them; he sees the issues facing Canada, the Atlantic region and our Island with intelligence and judgment; and he stands up to address those issues in a positive way.  He gets results.

But let’s talk about Joe as the person behind the candidate, and explore how he came to be what he is …

He has a delightful family.  His wife Rosa is a lab tech.  There are continuing connections with family in the Dominican Republic where Rosa and Joe met and wed.  They have two adult children, Daniel and Claire.

Joe’s childhood neighbourhood was multi-cultural — the accents were Québecois, Italian, Asian, African — and his parents’ home was often filled with lively discussion from richly varied perspectives.  Another germinal influence on young Joe was the Scarboro Foreign Missions: Joe was drawn to the idea of service in developing-world communities.  After graduation from UPEI, he was a community-development educator and researcher in the Dominican Republic for seven years– the formative experience which shaped his knowledge of and commitment to community activism … and also gave him Rosa!  He has travelled through Latin America, Europe and Australia.

Here on PEI Joe has worked on social programs in rural communities.  He has done field-work on issues faced by university and college students; he has been Director of Youth Ministry and also coordinated pastoral planning for the diocese.  His mission and church experiences in a time of change have developed essential skills — in communication and organization; in dealing with challenge, even hostility, as people experience anxious uncertainty; in cultivating coalition and consensus.

Joe worked for years at the PEI Association for Newcomers to Canada, helping refugees and other immigrants to integrate into Canadian life — for which Joe was awarded a Canada Citation for Citizenship.  His fluency in Spanish as well as French and English was a real advantage.  His principle work nowadays is at the Cooper Institute, the grass-roots collective for community development, where he focuses on creation of a resource centre for migrant workers.  He also does administrative and production work for the entertainment company which produces Anne and Gilbert.  He has kept up his interaction with young folks and people with disabilities as a driving-school instructor.  His door is always open, and his skills available, to people who need help.

Joe has formed hundreds of friendships by way of his many circles of volunteer connection — in the Latin American Mission Program, church Youth and Music ministries, Voluntary Resource Council, Peace Vigil Group, Atlantic Council for International Cooperation, Canada World Youth and Katimavik hosting … all that, plus his work for good NDP causes.  He has walked a thousand kilometres on the Camino de Santiago, a meditative and inspiring experience.

Joe loves music, and his guitar is a dandy way of bringing people together.  He has a unique sense of humour — including a facility for quoting Monty Python … but he watches mostly crime shows on TV and listens to information programs on CBC.  Breakfast is his favourite meal (he’s a sucker for bacon) but in Dominican style the family eats a lot of rice and beans.  He is a passionate bridge player.  And you ought to see him dance!

How did he get into politics?  As a 10-year-old he canvassed his town for signatures on a petition to officially declare the beaver as Canada’s national emblem … and sent it off to the CBC’s “As It Happens”!  At age 17 he got drawn into volunteering for Deputy Prime Minister, Allan MacEachen — Joe calls that teenage Liberal interlude his “temporary affliction”.

Nowadays he follows a “more sensible” course as a New Democrat, but he hasn’t lost any of his enthusiastic idealism.  Every morning (after a good breakfast, of course) he’s passionately keen to get going: “My job is to make the world a better place, not just for my family and friends, but for all.”

That’s Joe Byrne: a good man.  Inspired by spiritual faith and devotion to social justice, above all he lives to help others and achieve fairness in our society.