P: Do you think Trump is being strategic in his use of Twitter or just typing what he thinks in the moment?

Tamara Small: I think it’s a bit of both. His tweeting style is consistent with who he is as a person — he’s always been bombastic. He’s also distrustful of many institutions, including the media. Twitter allows him to avoid dealing with the media and communicate directly with the people. And it captures their attention. That’s the strategic part.

P: What makes Trump’s use of Twitter effective?

TS: His tweets look like what a regular person would say, rather than a politician. On Twitter, Trump can say a multitude of things and he doesn’t have to answer questions. That’s good for politicians — there’s no detail, no context, just a sound bite. But politics in 140 characters by politicians of any stripe should be concerning to the public.

P: Why should we be concerned?

TS: If politicians don’t have to defend their ideas in a public forum, we all lose. There’s a reason why a free press is a cornerstone of democracy — we need the questions to be asked. Even if they aren’t answered, they are out there and give some context about the issues.

P: Should he stop using Twitter?

TS: This is more about Donald Trump as a person than about the president using Twitter. Prior to Trump, we lauded politicians for using social media. Barack Obama used Twitter and people loved it, and I don’t think anybody would suggest Justin Trudeau should shut down his account. I do think it’s time for him to stop using Twitter for things like dissing (actress) Meryl Streep or discussing foreign policy. But this is who Donald Trump is. He has never hidden who he is, and this is whom the American people elected.

P: Do you think this is the future for elections — will more of them be fought on social media?

TS: Not necessarily. Donald Trump is an atypical political candidate. Most politicians could not use Twitter in this way, and talk about people the way he does and get away with it.

P: Do you think we’ll see a change in the way Canadian politicians use social media?

TS: I think the cork is already out of the bottle. Even in traditional media, speeches have been getting shorter and shorter. Politicians don’t want to do long talks with details on their policies or answer media questions. Most voters don’t want to listen to them, either, so we’re not going to make them. However, Canadian politicians don’t have the same size audience that Trump does. Kevin O’Leary is another bombastic reality show star who recently entered into Canadian politics. I’m sure his team is watching Donald Trump’s tactics closely.

–TERESA PITMAN

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Why is this research so important?

In Northern Canada, food security is mainly an economic issue. We currently import perishable produce and fly it into remote places at great expense. It’s difficult for people to get fresh food and they can’t grow their own food outside. In the Middle East, they’re projecting the day when they will have to survive without oil. The deserts of Kuwait, where it’s 50 C, and the snow banks of Yellowknife, where it’s -50 C, have equally profound food security issues but the solution is identical: space-related technology.

How are you growing plants in barren places?

We’re using controlled environment technologies to produce food year-round in places where you would never consider sticking a seed in the ground. It’s technology that we’ve developed for growing food in space — the next worse place after Northern Canada to grow food has got to be the surface of the moon or Mars. We’re hoping to put a pilot-scale installation in the Northwest Territories and there’s already a prototype in Kuwait growing vegetables in an otherwise hostile environment. We hope to explore high-value perishable crops like strawberries, sweet peppers, herbs and romaine lettuce, along with medicinal herbs, which have a higher profit margin.

What role does light play in the technology?

A plant is a product of its environment and responds to every environmental variable — carbon dioxide, light, temperature, humidity, nutrients and water. The advent of high-intensity, high-efficiency LEDs gives us the power to fine-tune the environment control. With the colour of the light, you can change the size, shape, taste and colour of a plant. Plants are the ultimate challenge because they’re so sophisticated in their physiological responses to light.

In the film The Martian, Matt Damon’s character grows potatoes on Mars. Could that really happen?

“Yes, the arithmetic was good — previous NASA research supports it. Our work is to fill in the blanks more precisely. For example, looking at how low can you take the pressure in the structure and still have plants providing all the functions of life support, food, oxygen, recycling water and scrubbing carbon dioxide.”

Do you think controlled environment agricultural systems will provide solutions to food security issues?

Absolutely. It will happen as the technology gets deployed on a larger scale and becomes more economically possible. The technology exists, and the interest, initiative and feasibility are obvious. The need is clear. It all depends on money — it’s the only limitation. –DAVID DICENZO

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An instructor at the University of Guelph-Humber, Gregory Klages, BA ’94, MA ’02, has been studying the circumstances of Thomson’s death for 10 years and examines the evidence in a new book, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction. On the eve of the centenary of Thomson’s death we talk to Klages about the painter’s demise.

P: Why has this mystery captivated people for almost 100 years?

GK: Thomson died a tragic, mysterious death and the “facts” have never stabilized long enough to get boring. Human remains discovered decades after his death suggest an entirely alternate version of events from the original account. Eyewitness testimony changed repeatedly and new “witnesses” were still coming forward 60 years after the fact. It seems like the plot of a bestselling crime fiction.

P: Why is there so much controversy over Thomson’s burial place?

GK: Thomson’s body was buried in Algonquin Park the day after it was found. His family immediately had his remains exhumed and reburied near Owen Sound. Still, some believe his body was never moved. They claim remains found in the park in 1956 are Thomson’s, despite contrary findings by police forensic experts.

P: What kind of evidence do you look at in your book?

GK: I consider the abundant documents produced by Thomson, his friends and family before and after his death. I also closely consider materials produced by those who have investigated Thomson’s death over the last century to help understand how the story about his death has evolved.

P: What about forensics performed in 2010 that suggest the body in the grave at Canoe Lake – found with a hole in the skull – is indeed Tom Thomson?

GK: In The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson I explain how those findings are dubious. The forensics involved is quite subjective – it doesn’t involve anything nearly as authoritative as DNA, for example. Much of the argument for Thomson’s body remaining in the park is very difficult to reconcile with evidence from 1917.

P: What do you think happened?

GK: I will say this: I consider the most popular theories about how Thomson died – accident, murder, suicide – and offer a comprehensive review of the evidence related to the case. I also subject almost a century of speculation to rigorous analysis. The approach reveals deep flaws in some of the main theories — I hope as the book progresses, what happened to Thomson emerges as obvious. Of course, it will be up to readers to decide if they are as convinced. – TERESA PITMAN

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Reid, BAS ’15, says people do more improvising at work than one might think, and learning to harness the power of improvisation on the job can help business professionals overcome anxiety and improve their communication skills.

P: How can improv make businesses better?

Jay Reid: We use improv skills as a training tool for professional development by harnessing all the skills of improv theatre that we use on stage and applying them off stage. We like to think of improv as a framework that encourages trust, flexibility and productive collaboration. Research shows that a one-per-cent increase in corporate climate — that’s a company in a good mood — leads to a two-per-cent increase in revenue.

P: How does improv help build corporate climate?

Hayley Kellett: It creates happy people. We thrive on creating a positive atmosphere. If we can
help increase positivity in the workplace, then those happy people are more likely to work harder because they’re enjoying themselves.

P: You say improv can help people with anxiety. Isn’t putting anxious people on stage counterintuitive?

HK: Improv creates a non-judgemental area where you can try things and everybody’s there for the same reason. We stress accepting other people’s ideas and supporting each other and working as a team, so there’s no pressure. We actually celebrate failure. When people make a mistake in improv, the worst-case scenario is that everyone ends up laughing.

P: Do you need to be funny to be good at improv?

JR: Improv doesn’t operate on funny, even though we see improv through a comedic lens most of the time. It operates on a framework of listening, connecting and responding. That first word, listening, is kind of strange to people when they think of improv because they think the silliest extroverted people are the best improvisers. We can take a group of relative strangers and within two hours have them smiling and laughing together, and building communities through the skills of improvisation. It has an incredible payoff.

P: What kind of feedback have you received?

JR: Quite often students say the experience helps alleviate their anxieties. It’s almost like exposure therapy. You have to step into the realm of the unexpected, and every time you step on the stage it’s the realm of the unexpected. Because life is improvised, the skills of improv can be applied anywhere.

– SUSAN BUBAK

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As co-owner of Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh in Bala, Ont., with her husband, Murray Johnston, she’s always looking for new ways to bring visitors to their farm — about 40,000 of them each year. Whether it’s touring the 27 acres of cranberry bogs or sampling the cranberry wines made by their Muskoka Lakes Winery, there’s always something to see, do, eat or drink.

P: What do you enjoy most about working on a cranberry farm?

WH: I love living in a rural area. I also believe very strongly in sustainable agriculture. What I do is fulfilling because I feel we’re contributing to that. We’re also contributing to the economic health of our area — Bala has developed its branding around cranberries.

P: The Bala Cranberry Festival is kind of a big deal — it’s one of the top events in Ontario. How are you involved?

WH: Ontario has very few cranberry growers (there are three commercial producers), and two of us are near Bala. When the town started the festival 30 years ago, it wanted to celebrate that uniqueness. We’ve been presenting sponsors of the festival since the beginning, and offer visitors a chance to see and experience a working cranberry farm. We offer wagon tours, wine tasting, helicopter rides, a mini farmers’ market and, of course, fresh cranberries. We also started a “stand in the berries” experience, where people can put on a pair of hip waders and get out in the cranberries.

P: You have an MBA and your husband has a B.Sc. in agriculture, both from Guelph. How do your academic backgrounds complement each other?

WH: Murray has a skill set that I don’t have. His expertise in cranberries and his understanding of plant physiology are pretty amazing, and he does a lot of research and development trying to understand his craft. I took sommelier studies when we started the winery, and the MBA was a way to bring more tools to the business to help us grow and survive. What I love about Guelph’s program is it’s agriculturally based, and hospitality and tourism based. It really hit both of the major aspects of our business.

P: Why did you decide to expand your farm operations to include agritourism?

WH: My undergrad was in recreation and tourism, so the agritourism side of things interested me and I developed them here: the expansion into farm-gate sales, value-added production and tours. We have a pretty small farm, so to stay in business and remain competitive, we’ve had to diversify and create extra value for the fruit that we grow.

P: What’s something people don’t know about cranberries?

WH: Cranberries don’t grow underwater. They grow on a trailing vine that forms a low, dense ground cover that hides the berries. At harvest time, we flood the bogs so the cranberries float to the top of the vine biomass to make them easier to pick. Our harvester combs the berries off the vines and collects them in boats.

– SUSAN BUBAK

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