On Tuesday, January 13, 1998 12:07 PM, Alan McFarlane[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] wrote: People WILL forget, unless > we take creative action. Make people remember. Campaign for a candidate > you feel will protect those who need protecting. Vote with your feet!! I agree with you Alan that the 'People for Education' green ribbon campaign was a wonderful thing. This group has been working for years on these issues. One thing that this thread has made me think of is the importance of courage and of telling the truth. Also I am not sure I agree that just focusing on two provinces as examples of regressive governments is good. This summer I was invited to present to our Liberal opposition leader on the state of children's lives in Ontario and possible things that could be done to improve them. (their lives) Having just finished months of work with both opposition parties on fighting changes to housing laws, I started out complimenting him on the support we had received, went on to state very concrete things I would expect a government to implement if they cared about children. Then I explained that I was an advocate and thus my JOB was to tell the truth and point out mistakes. I proceeded to take him to task for what his counterparts had done with the U.I. changes. I have heard little from the health community about the U.I. changes, although I understand that many are concerned with children. Since the changes to the program that have disqualified all kinds of women we have seen an over 50% reduction in women qualifying for maternity benefits, I assume we have not seen a equal reduction in women working or women who are having babies. This at a time when all sectors of our community and governments are running around claiming to be concerned with children and what not. I hear time and time again that it is not part of health people's mandate to do advocacy. Who's job is it to tell governments the negative impacts of their policies, unpaid, unsupported, volunteer members of affected groups with no resources or support outside of the free breakfasts for our children? I would like to see some discussion of healthy public policy and what the health promotion community feels are its responsibilities to speak out against bad ones. S -- Sherrie Tingley [log in to unmask]