Save Encounters With Canada

The Right Honorable Stephen Harper
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6


Dear Honorable Mr. Harper,

I am writing in response to your proposed closure of the Canadian Unity Council an organization that has helped to foster Canadian pride since 1964. The mission of the Canadian Unity Council, a non-profit and non-partisan organization, is to inform and to engage all Canadians in building and strengthening Canada. By ceasing the large federal funding that the CUC receives you are truly putting our country at risk.

One of the Canadian Unity Councils core programs is Encounters With Canada a one week program that brings together diverse youth from across the country together to learn about our country and its heritage. Having participated in Encounters With Canada in November of 2003, I am aware first hand on the impact that it has on an individuals life not only as an individual but as a citizen of our beautiful country Canada. For many of the youth who participate in its program, Encounters provides them with an opportunity to travel outside their home province, perhaps even for the first time, while opening their minds to the diverse country and culture that surrounds them. Encounters With Canada creates an environment, which encourages multiculturalism and critical thinking, while providing its participants with a better understanding of Canadian institutions.

Encounters With Canada had a large impact on my life, and I am proud to say that I have a photo album and scrapbook that is filled with memories of the museums and national historic sites I visited, as well as the friends that I made from across the country. I have kept in contact with a number of them throughout the years and assure you that a number of them will definitely be making an impact on our country.

Encounters With Canadas volunteers and staff also impacted they way I thought about what it was to be Canadian; together they created an institution which is truly Canadian. They also showed their Canadian pride by commemorating one of Canadas greatest heroic activists by naming the centre The Terry Fox Centre. I hope that the past and present participants of Encounters with Canada can together make our own Marathon of Hope much like Terry Fox did by providing you and your colleagues with evidence to support the importance of this great institution.