write letters to my elected officials

I think it’s important to get your voice heard, and make politicians aware of what their constituents think and want. I wrote about this a little here in my blog

Give props where due – my Member of Parliament wrote me a letter and apologized for being tardy with his reply.

Let me borrow a phrase that I attribute to Australians (but correct me if it originated elsewhere): Good on you, mate!

to send lots of notes about term limits.

Received an email today about the hideous raise voted in by Ontario’s provincial government. A 25% raise. What the hell is that?

My response is that we need fewer career politicians. One way to do this is (follow the good example set by New Zealand and others) shorten elected terms to 3 years (from 4 in ON and some other places, up to 5 yrs in most of Canada) and then limit each elected representative to any 2 terms consecutive or not, doesn’t matter. 6 years max.

And by the way, get rid of the pension schemes for these people. The elected representatives should get pensions from their ‘private life’ work only.

bag tax, on plastic bags but on bags given out by all retailers.

Also about lifting restrictions on what property owners can do with their properties in my city. Specifically, my city would benefit from higher density. What could help with breaking down the dependence on automobiles is the availability of more smaller food retailers within walking distance of more residences. This allows for more opportunities for small and micro-businesses which would be operated from home or very close to it.

My city could increase its density if it was easier to create an additional housing unit (like a basement suite) within one’s home.

recently over the issue of foreign aid.

Did you know that there is no National Firefighters Day?

Write to your elected officials asking them to start one. A sample letter is at my blog post:
http://www.spudart.org/blogs/randomthoughts_comments/3738_0_3_0_C/

to my Member of Parliament, the Ministers of Health and Environment, as well as an unelected government official about proposed changes which would take away the traditional exemption granted to animals such as transgenic mice used by research scientists in the search for a cure for Huntington Disease.

Sent my Member of Parliament (federal government representative) a note yesterday.

Hmmm, I guess I added this goal, because it sounded like a good thing to do. But I need something I really want to write about first. Maybe I could just share with my elected officials what I had for breakfast.

I wrote to Jim Ryun, Sam Brownback, and Pat Roberts (I know) about the abuses going on in Guantanamo Bay.

Listen to this gem from Jim:

“Recently, many news outlets have reported that there are serious abuses of prisoners going on at GTMO. I am disappointed in these reports as they have not accurately reported the truth and sought to tarnish America’s image.”

Also, “they are eating chicken three times a week”.

Similar responses from Sam and Pat.