Legislation Communique #2

Submitted by: Sheila Quinn

Greetings,

Although some dioceses and parish councils meetings may already have taken place please make an effort to get this message out to our League sisters, perhaps by a short e-mail message encouraging them how important their vote is.

Federal Election – October 14,2008

This important date for our country is drawing close so before deciding which candidate to cast your vote for it is a good idea to check out your candidates’ platform. Our national Legislation Chair, Judy Lewis suggests, in her communiqué just received, you may want to ask some of the following questions:

• preventing human trafficking at the 2010 Olympics
• accurate food labeling
• toxic substances in household products
• hospice palliative care
• revision of the Youth Criminal Justice Act
• protection of farmers’ seeds from being patented
• any other issues/concerns you may have

Judy reminds us that women fought hard to obtain the privilege to vote and give dates that this happened for each province and that native women covered b the Indian Act were prohibited from voting for band councils till 1951 and in federal elections until 1960. We probably are not aware that the first time women in our province were granted voting privileges in provincial elections also being allowed to hold office was in 1917.

May Our Lady of Good Counsel guide us all as we make our decision as to who should govern our country.