Millions Missing Canada advocacy, letter to political leaders during Federal Election 2021

A federal election in Canada is underway.

Recognizing that nearly 600K Canadian patients with ME together with their families and supporters could represent potentially millions of voters, a few advocates collaborated on preparing a letter last weekend to send to each party leader. The letter can be read in English and French at the links below.

We're asking each leader of their political party only two questions.

1. ME is a serious, chronic, complex, systemic disease that can profoundly impact and incapacitate patients yet has little research funding. What actions will you take to significantly increase research funding into this debilitating illness?
2. What specific commitment will you make to Canadians living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis so that, if elected, you can effectively represent their concerns in the House of Commons and on Committees as their elected representatives?

All replies received from party leaders will be published. How they respond may help our Canadian ME community decide how to vote.

Patients, partners, family members, supporters, individual advocates and ME groups are all being invited to cosign the letter.

This is time sensitive as the campaign is a short one. We want to be sure to get a reply so we need to send this letter out soon before campaign offices become flooded with requests. If you want to be included, please sign as soon as possible. If you can, please share this message and the links below with family, friends and caregivers asking for their support. Each signature can add strength to our cause.

This initiative is a collaborative effort between the team at Millions Missing Canada and independent Canadian advocates. So far, we've had a fantastic response this week with several ME groups cosigning the letter and over 700 signatures from individual Canadians.

Traduction française :
https://bit.ly/3xYNS6r

Read the Letter:
https://bit.ly/381IfKl

Cosign the Letter:
https://bit.ly/3g1YYBq

MMC Original FB Message to Share on Social Media:
https://bit.ly/3ARXT7r

MMC Twitter Message to Share on Social Media:
https://bit.ly/3D2zHRE

News Alert for Sharing With Family & Friends by Email:
https://bit.ly/3CUuGKB

 

An impressive initiative, I hope you get positive responses from your political candidates.

 

Way to go Millions Missing Canada!

Thank you!

 

I'm not on twitter but it would be good to inform the press who write on health issues.

@kellygrant1 (The Globe & Mail)
@sharon_kirkey (National Post)
and it could be useful to tag the University Health Network (Toronto) @UHN

 

Excellent idea!

 

I thought there were 600,000 cfsers not counting the COVID long haulers which would increase that number by quite a bit. We must continue to approach it from any angle. Remember Ron Davis said many other illnesses seem to also have cfs and he thinks when the biomarker test comes out there will be evidence that other illness also have cfs. Wonder if we could raise awareness of this to our leaders as well. Ron Davis mentioned ms. But i notice that serious arthritis such as ankylosing spondylitis, seems to have cfs symptoms too such as brain fog, fatigue anxiety, that gets worse when they overdo. That overlap with other illnesses might clarify the seriousness faced in our society by cfs.

 

We've had a terrific response to the letter with 900 Canadians cosigning to support it. Thanks to S4ME for circulating it and for all those who responded so enthusiastically.

To bring maximum awareness to ME in Canada during this election, the second part of this action is for the 900 cosignatories supporting the letter to the Leaders, to now reach out to the Candidates running in their ridings.

Many of these candidates are completely new to politics and it's highly likely they're completely new to ME as well. This is a golden opportunity to potentially reach hundreds of politicians or would be politicians. A chance like this only comes around once every 4 years — or at least usually it does. (This time it's only been 2 years since the last election.)

It's a very simple ask and easy to do. Simply copy and paste the brief prewritten letter into an email and fire it off to the candidates in each person's riding. The letter to the Candidates links to the same letter sent to the Leaders outlining the serious situation for Canadians with ME while asking for increased federal research funding and a commitment to represent the community's concerns.

The simple instructions are all contained in this News Alert including how to find the candidates in each person's riding. There's also a Facebook Message and a short Twitter thread.

Can you imagine if 900 Canadians sent the letter about ME out to just 3 candidates in their area? Providing the letter was read of course, that would be 2700 politicians that would hear about the rising crisis for ME.

We're hoping to see the same eagerness for this part of the project!