The Cloth Bag Princess

words and above photo :: Kieran Brownie

It was late in 2007, in Rossland BC, when Tracey Saxby hit her breaking point.

Her feelings at the time were not entirely unique—Tracey felt powerless in the wake of everything going on around her—the climate crisis, ecosystem degradation, and especially the global proliferation of singleuse plastics.

What made this breakdown special was how Tracey acted on it. She spoke up about her concerns and found herself surrounded by a strong core of local, like-minded women wanting to help. Tracey quit her job as a marine scientist and committed to the cause. She soon found herself directing a team of 50 volunteers. In less than a year, Rossland reduced the town’s reliance on plastic shopping bags by 75 per cent. The only problem was that municipal governments did not have the authority to ban single-use plastics.

Tracey took the campaign on the road, travelling from town to city with her presentations and speaking with newspapers and radio shows. Her tireless dedication paid off, in part because of how she framed the campaign as a “challenge.” Tracey found that gamifying her cause energized more people, and support really took off after a CBC Radio interview. As her inbox ding-dinged with countless emails from across the country, Tracey threw herself into the campaign with twice as much vigour…then she burned out.

“I ended up volunteering 180 hours in two weeks,” she explains. “It took a toll on my body…I had to step back.”

But the embers of disruption kept smoldering until 2011 when a 21-year-old page in the Canadian Senate named Brigette DePape interrupted the Speech from the Throne raising a red paper sign with the words “Stop Harper.” Since Stephen Harper was the prime minister of Canada at the time, the stunt made front-page news. Tracey, now living in Squamish, felt the flame return. She picked up where she’d left off, banging the plastic-ban drum at any and all in range. In 2019, thanks in part to the work of Tracey and the community of Rossland years earlier, and more recent city-wide action in San Francisco, the City of Victoria announced they would ban single-use plastics. Rossland followed suit, with other communities, and the BC Environment Minister’s office adding support. Representing plastic (and/or oil) companies, the Canadian Plastic Bag Association (CPBA) started suing cities and municipalities who dared take a stand on plastic waste.

In June 2022, the Government of Canada issued a country-wide ban on manufacturing and importing plastic bags, takeout containers, single-use plastic straws, stir sticks, cutlery and six-pack rings. That ban came into effect in December 2022, with domestic sales of those items to cease by the end of 2023 and exports by the end of 2025 (with the exception of straws for certain medical and accessibility needs).

For Tracey, it’s a sweet victory, and one with an intriguing twist. At a panel discussion on the proposed Woodfibre LNG facility in Howe Sound, Tracey had the chance to meet Brigette DePape, the “Stop Harper” advocate who inspired her to pick up where she’d left off. She thanked the young woman, but Brigette cut her short, saying, “No, thank you. You’re the Cloth Bag Princess.”

It was Tracey’s passionate campaign that had inspired Brigette to push for a plastic bag ban at her own university and start down her own path of advocacy—a circle of influence and action perfectly exemplifying the famous quote by cultural anthropologist and icon Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”