My old friend Shawna once joined the Green Party. Having a good head on her shoulders, the local Greens asked her to run for office.
Many years later my friend saw my July piece on Writing to “Right Honourable” Folks, the blog where I said my Member of Parliament (MP) remembered my name… while most people don’t know about writing successful letters.
“Send me your letters,” she urged. So I did. Reasoning that “most people” could include my friend, I remembered a stereotype of e-letters being stridently against politicians and the establishment—you know, like how leftist supposedly talk with each other.
I wouldn’t want Shawna to write the way we sometimes talk: when I sent her my letters to my MP and his dedicated assistant… I added, to each, a fresh letter for Shawna, giving her my take on writing for success.
“My take” includes being helpful and having my criticism constructive. My favourite reply went, “Thanks Sean, love it. And I passed it along to the Ottawa team.”
Don’t worry, dear reader, I won’t inflict on you the actual letters to my MP.
The first letter I forwarded, by the way, is in the Writing to “Right Honourable Folks” essay about data centres recently posted on my blog:
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Hi Shawna,
Here’s a letter where I got a reply.
It helped that I did not scold.
And that if, hypothetically, I was a fanatic who thought data centres “should be killed like capitalism,” I concealed any such belief. (But I admit to you Shawna that those centres deeply disturb me)
As I wrote, I kept in mind that maybe my reader was fanatically in favour of data centres, with a belief that data centres “raise the GDP.” Therefore I wrote so as not trigger any such fanaticism, nor any defences to any belief-ego.
I remember a Canadian comedian (Red Green?) who would end each show saying, “remember to keep your stick on the ice; I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.”
It helped that I wrote in that comic spirit, person to person. I did not “give up in advance” or flail about angrily.
It helped that I had light humour, and I think his reply was in light humour too. He did not close the door to my concern.
Here’s the reply:
“We do have a young intern so we may do just that. Thanks for the suggestion Sean!”
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Hi Shawna,
I suppose it might interest you that I received a thoughtful answer (longer than usual) to a thoughtful letter.
Let’s not give up hope that our MPs are thinking.
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Hi Shawna,
Annotations
1) I guess the lesson here is that I could have just written a soundbite, but I didn’t, and that worked out all right.
2) The other lesson is to allow others to have their pet peeves. In his reply, my correspondent wore his beliefs on his sleeve. My responsibility is to be Okay with someone else having an ideology, because hey, diversity makes the world. I’m still chuckling at how the Marxist-Lenninists hated the Stalinist-Kruschevists—when they were both communists!
If I want respect, then I have to give respect. Like in a university classroom. Only with dialogue can we meet in the middle and effect change.
Well, not always. I once walked over to see my MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) but I left when I heard an angry voice down the hall and it was my boss. So I walked home and left a telephone message: “You go girl!”
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Hi Shawna,
In this letter I said I was angry, and I was critical too. Well, part of an MP’s job is to know that people are angry. I did not foam at the mouth, and I still tried to give my MP factual information and constructive advice. Which earned his reply.
Regards,
Sean
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Hi Shawna,
Last night around 8 p.m. my MP mailed his community newsletter.
Just the day before I had sent this e-mail that I am forwarding to you.
His big list of topics his constituents had sent in the last month included my last-minute topic, “AI regulation.” Ain’t it nice to be included? (The topics do not count numbers of folks who wrote in)
Now, I can choose to feel cold and lonely saying, “I am probably the only one to write and care about the issue.”
Or, I can choose to be warm and energized thinking, “I am surely not the only one to care, and I hope me and my fellow-Canadians keep on trying.”
I forwarded a Youtube clip by a Canadian so that my MP might be nudged a little more to act on the issue.
I wasn’t nagging, although I had written on that topic before (and was told they were looking into it). I was reminding, because the Youtube was an excuse to tactfully raise the issue again. Well, I hope you think I was tactful.
Say, the word “tact” comes from the Latin, to “touch.”
I wouldn’t write if I wasn’t emotionally motivated, as my MP expects, but still, I usually try for a delicate touch.
I don’t expect any reply from my MP.
Sean
—UPDATE- I received a reply saying I’m not alone, that other Canadian have written in their concerns too, and thanked me for sending the Youtube: (According to Nicole entitled “WTF in this?” After a fan wondered if her living room was fake because someone else was using it)
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Sean Crawford
August,
Calgary
2026
Epistle note: I only sent Shawna one letter a day: no overwhelming allowed!
