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From: "Muriel M. Davidson" <>
Subject: [Bos-St] Post 1901 Census - Writing letters
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 19:21:41 -0500


To all:-
We MUST, at present, follow requests as received -- write to our
own MP or Senator -- above all help both Murray Calder and
Senator Lorna Milne with many signatures on petitions.
Muriel M. Davidson
http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census/Petition.htm
-----------------------------------------------------

Greetings All.

Our past efforts in encouraging all to write letters and email to all MPs
and Senators have been tremendously successful, and we thank all
that done so. We have had indications that in the offices of many of
our elected and appointed representatives, messages regarding support
for access to Historic Census Records far outnumber messages received on
any other subject. From this we can safely assume that all Members of
Parliament and Senators are now most certainly aware of our feelings on
this subject.

We have also had indications that, with a new Minister of Industry, some
things are once again happening behind the scenes. As such it is
perhaps time now for a slight change in tactics to allow those working
on our behalf the opportunity to see some results from their efforts.

We still encourage all to write letters to their own Member of Parliament,
to those Senators that represent the area in which they live, and of
course
the applicable Ministers. We would ask, however, for the time being at
least, you restrict your letters to your own representatives, and do not
send
blanket letters and email to all of them.

A few word about your letters and email.

We have been advised that in some cases, messages to our representatives
have crossed the boundary from encouraging them to support our point of
view, to harassment and demands that they do so. This kind of message
only serves to get their back up and even if they were inclined to see
things our way, they get angry and say "To h*** with them!" I have been
copied on some letters, that had they been directed to me, would have
caused this reaction from myself.

Our purpose in writing is to get our representatives to join in our
effort,
not to antagonize or annoy them. In that regard we should keep the
following in mind:

* Be polite and respectful in your comments.
* If your purpose in writing is to inform, keep your comments factual.
* If your purpose is to request their support -- request it -- don't
demand it.
* Above all, do not let your message be a personal attack on any
individual because they might have a different point of view than you
do.

I repeat -- be polite and respectful.

In this age of electronic communication it is easy to zip off an email
and send it to many people at the same time. I confess to being guilty
of frequently doing this myself. We have been reminded lately, however,
that many of our representatives would put more stock in, and more
readily pay attention to, an individual letter from a constituent
(particularly a hand written one) than they would to 100 email from
non-constituents.

With this in mind we suggest for the time being, rather than using email
you send personal letters via Canada Post. If mailed in Canada there is
no postage required to send a letter or parcel to any Member of
Parliament or Senator. If your handwriting is legible (mine isn't) use
pen and ink to write it. If your handwriting is not legible by all
means use your typewriter or word processor to print it out before
mailing - [add signature in handwriting, please - MMD].

If you receive a response that shows a different position than those
shown on the MP or Senator Scoreboards, please forward a copy to me so
that their position can be brought up to date.

Thank you all for your support. Happy Hunting.

Gordon A. Watts
Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee
Port Coquitlam, BC

http://globalgenealogy.com/Census
en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm

Permission to forward without notice is granted.




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