Greetings All. This morning Jeff Paul has taken me to task, and rightfully so, regarding the BellaOnline article which quoted my responses to questions asked by Betty Dobson. One of those questions was "Which political party, if any, do you find more open to supporting the project?" Part of my response stated "The Liberal and Bloc Quebecois Members have shown the least support, based on numbers of Members and percentage of responses to our letters and emails seeking their position on the question of support." In formulating my response to the question I was looking at the numbers only, and based on those numbers my response was factually correct. However, numbers and isolated facts do not always tell the whole story. My response to the question tended to focus on the negative rather than the positive. Jeff Paul was correct in taking me to task -- not so much for what I did say, as for what I did not say. I did not give credit where credit was, and is, due. What I did not say was that without the support and tremendous amount of work done on our behalf by certain Liberals such as Senator Lorna Milne, former MP Murray Calder, former Minister of Industry Alan Rock, and former Heritage Minister Sheila Copps we would not now have online access to the 1906 Census. Without the support of these individuals, and others, we would now be no closer to seeing the release of subsequent Historic Censuses than we were when the Post 1901 Census campaign started six years ago. No-one, and I emphasize no-one, has put more effort into achieving what we seek than has Senator Lorna Milne. She and her staff have worked tirelessly behind the scenes and no-one is more aware of that than I. Their work on our behalf continues today. In responding to the question asked I was remiss in not giving credit where credit is due. I cannot rewrite an article already published but I can, and do, offer my sincere public apology to Senator Milne, her staff, and to those supportive Members who may have felt my response belittled their support. We can write letters to MPs 'until the cows come home'. However, without someone to speak for us in the Senate and the House of Commons little can be accomplished. We are grateful beyond words for having had Senator Milne as our spokesperson in the Senate and for Murray Calder in the House of Commons. We are grateful also to others in both places that have expressed support for the access we seek. In referring to political parties it is easy to get in the habit of using generalities -- of 'tarring everybody with the same brush', so to speak. I am no less guilty of that than anyone else. We tend to forget that political parties, or any organizations for that matter, are made up of individuals and that various individuals within the party or organization have their own opinions regarding any specific issue. We have had individual support from Members of all federal political parties, including the Liberal party, and we should not forget that. Happy Hunting Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-chair Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census en francais http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f Permission to forward without notice is granted