Letter Writing Week: Letter #5

Here it is, my grand finale.

This letter was not emailed. I printed it at a local computer cafe for fifteen cents a sheet and snail mailed it across the Atlantic.

My last letter of the week is a doozy, and what I ask of this person is while not above the person’s authority to do… it’s something I doubt will be done, let alone considered.

But as I tell my son all the time, if you never ask the answer will always be no. So in order to set an example rather than just tell people what to do, I sent my final letter (via snail mail) to Buckingham Palace.

Letter #5: Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II

May it please Your Majesty,

I would like to start my correspondence by stating that I hope this letter finds Your Highness as well as everyone else in the Royal Family in good health and prospering well. As your humble subject, I would like to take a moment to discuss something that has concerned a great deal of citizens in Canada and has begun to create a controversy in our parliament. It is my wish that this letter will further inform Her Majesty of the issue in the hopes that something can be done to assist in restoring order in Canada as well as for your grace’s loyal subjects.

I write to Your Highness an alarmed citizen as I am concerned about our democracy, the very same which was bestowed upon our great nation by the generous benevolence of Your Majesty’s ancestors. During the 41st general election in May of 2011, actions were taken by unscrupulous people in an effort to suppress voters and prevent them from exercising their right to cast a ballot. It is being reported here that Elections Canada has received over thirty-one thousand complaints from citizens across the country concerning automated as well as fraudulent calls made to voters in an attempt to take away their democratic right to elect their government officials.

On Election Day (May 4th, 2011), voters were contacted by people who claimed to be officials representing Elections Canada. These fraudulent callers, who did not work for Elections Canada, would go on to inform the person they were calling that the location where they were supposed to cast their vote had changed. These voters were then directed to vote at a location that was not valid. This caused many Canadians to travel to the incorrect polling station, which in turn was refused because the station didn’t have their information.

The desired result of the fraudulent calls was the hope that after being denied the opportunity to vote at the incorrect location, the voter would give up out of frustration, return home and not cast their vote. Elections Canada has received over thirty-one thousand complaints about these calls, and based on those numbers it’s clear to see a fraud was committed on the people of Canada. Spreading false information and making harassing phone calls are both offences under the Criminal Code, which means whoever made this calls did so with an utter disregard for the laws of our civilized society.

Without pointing fingers at specific members of parliament and/or political parties who have been rumoured to been responsible for this outrage, one thing is perfectly clear concerning this matter: a fraud has been committed against the people of Canada. Many electoral races in Canada were decided by as little as fifty votes, so the suggestion that over thirty thousand voters were suppressed should lead anyone to conclude that this fraud had a profound an impact on the results of last year’s general election.

Your Majesty, I beseech your grace to step in and help restore sanity to what is becoming a very crazy situation. The only way to resolve this issue would be to redo the past general election and grant the people of Canada, Your Majesty’s loyal subjects, another chance to freely elect their representatives. The people of Canada have been wronged and for this reason I beg Her Royal Highness to exercise the monarch’s unique powers and once again bestow democracy to our great nation. According to the Constitution Act of 1867, the monarch has the prerogative to prorogue and even dissolve the legislature at any time. Dissolving parliament and sending voters back to the polls is the only way to truly right this wrong and allow Your Highness’ loyal subjects the ability to elect our representatives free of illegal interference. The request I am humbly make of your highness is not above the authority of the monarch. It would not be taking away anything from the people of Canada, but instead returning something that dishonest people tried to take away from us by attempting to fix the results of last May’s general election.

It was the late Edmund Burke, an Irish philosopher and politician who once stated: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Right now there is great evil being asserted against the people of Canada and I am writing to beg Your Royal Highness to help us. Please prevent the triumph of evil by denying victory to those who have tried to rig our electoral system and deny our people the right to an election free of harassment, fraud and suppression.

I feel is it my duty as a loyal subject to inform Your Majesty of the ongoing controversy here in Canada as I have no doubt Your Grace would be just as troubled as we are by the events of the past election. Dissolving parliament and giving the people another chance to vote our members back into the house is the only way to make sure that every vote is counted and that no one is fraudulently left out of our democratic process. I hope that Your Majesty recognizes the importance of the people’s right to vote and restore honour to that by sending our Parliament back to the polls to answer to the people of Canada. I would also like to thank Your Highness for the honour of any time and consideration used by Your Grace to address my modest request.

I have the honour to remain, Madam, Your Majesty’s most humble and obedient servant.

Peter