The work of Transport Action Canada is made possible by our many volunteers, including the members of our national board of directors, who are elected each year at our AGM. If you would like to find out more about volunteering or serving on our national or regional boards, please contact us.
The current board members, for 2023-24, are:
Originally from the Montreal, Quebec area, Paul earned both B.SC. and Dip.Ed. degrees from McGill University. He has lived in nine Canadian cities and worked in seven, in three Canadian provinces. Paul has direct experience operating school, line haul, and charter buses and motorcoaches. With experience in non-commissioned leadership roles in the military, as a teacher, a software developer, a customer support and training agent, a manager, a technical marketing manager, a project manager, a bus operator, and dispatcher, Paul has travelled extensively through Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, experiencing a wide variety of public transportation offerings, cultures, and geographies. His marriage to a wonderful, dynamic deafblind woman, Penny, has provoked a keen interest in accessibility issues, particularly as they relate to transportation systems and the use of guide dogs. An unabashed rail fan, Paul is also a member of the Bytown Railway Society.
Bruce Budd has been a member of Transport Action for nearly 40 years, served as the Ontario Secretary for eight years and as President of Transport Action Canada from 2016 to 2019. Bruce has organized several community events focusing on transit & passenger rail issues and on voting reform. Professionally, Bruce worked as a Senior Review Officer with the Pay Equity Commission after having sat for 10 years as a bilingual member on the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal. Previous to that he was Director of Finance at OPSEU, a Director of Advertising for a Trust Company and a bank Credit Officer in Toronto and Quebec City. He holds a B.Comm. from U. of T. and spent one year at the Institut d’études politiques, Paris.
Marcus Garnet was born in England, and immigrated with his family to Montreal in 1964. He received his Masters in Urban and Rural Planning at the Technical University of Nova Scotia, which brought him to Halifax.
In his day job working for Halifax Regional Municipality, Marcus focuses on the relationship between transportation, land use and lifestyle, and has been closely involved with the Halifax Integrated Mobility Plan. He applies principles of Transit Oriented Development to innovative rezoning projects, and he advises on commuter rail, ride hailing and the implications of autonomous cars.
Marcus joined Transport 2000 Atlantic and became a regional board member in the late 1980s. He has used the train service between Montreal and the Maritimes every year since 1984, and was heavily involved in opposing the infamous Via Rail cuts of January 1990. He keeps abreast of emerging railway technology both in North America and in Britain, and looks for opportunities to apply best practices to the Canadian context.
Marcus lives with his wife Christine and their pet bird, Morton, in a Dartmouth neighbourhood that can best be described as “Old Urbanism”. He and Christine enjoy volunteering for their church, and Marcus often advises students on research topics and projects related to transportation.
Tim Hayman lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he works for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Originally from eastern Ontario, Tim moved to the east coast in the fall of 2007 to complete a B.Sc. in Biology at St. Francis Xavier University, followed by a Masters of Marine Management at Dalhousie University. Tim first became involved with Transport Action when VIA announced the cut to the Ocean frequency in 2012, followed soon after by the threat of abandonment to the Newcastle Subdivision. Transport Action Atlantic (TAA) grabbed his attention as the clear voice for passenger rail advocacy in the region; he has been a board member of TAA since 2014, currently serving as President and webmaster. Tim travels by rail whenever he can, and maintains a blog about his travels.
Tariq Khan, a retired senior bureaucrat, Londoner, sportsman by nature, music lover at heart, father, husband and passionate activist for transportation safety and mobility management. He possesses over three decades of senior management experience in the public, non-profit & private sectors. These decision making roles have provided him with a vast and valuable experience in running the day-to-day affairs of large scale organizations. His most recent community service portfolio includes Chair, Integrated Transportation Advisory Committee, City of London; former Vice-Chair and Commissioner, London Transit Commission; Member, Court of Revision, City of London; and member of the Western Fair Association programming council.
Alex is an enthusiast of rail transit and has lived in Paris and Singapore. Alex has lived in Vancouver for 11 years and is a pharmaceutical chemist developing biological treatments for cancer. He also enjoys hiking and bicycling and tourism in transit-rich, well-developed cities. He is currently president of Transport Action British Columbia.
David Jeanes is a retired professional engineer in Ottawa. He joined Transport 2000, (as Transport Action was then called), in 1976 soon after it was founded, bringing a keen interest in high-speed rail, light rail, transportation safety and railway history. He served as treasurer from 1989 to 2000, as president from 2002 to 2014, and again as treasurer in 2015, 2018 and 2019.
Terry Johnson has been involved in passenger advocacy for more than a decade, starting in Southwestern Ontario where has lived since coming to Canada in 2003. He has studied Railway Engineering at Technical University Delft, leadership with the Ivey School of Business, and has a Master’s in Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford. He is an entrepreneur, with experience in computer science and artificial intelligence, and also volunteers with two social housing organizations.
Peter Miasek is a retired chemist who worked over 30 years in the oil industry. He now lives in Markham and is actively involved in numerous advocacy initiatives for sustainable transportation and improved urban planning in Greater Toronto and across Ontario. Peter is currently president of Transport Action Ontario.
Michael Olivier is a former aerospace software engineer, with a B.Sc. Physics, a Masters Certificate in Business Analysis (Schulich School of Business, York University), and a diploma in French. Michael is a former consultant in research and development, avid transportation observer and commentator, member of TTCRiders, and Co-Chair of the South Etobicoke Transit Action Committee. He has lived in five provinces, and currently lives in the streetcar suburb of Long Branch in Toronto.