Hi Ruth. Thanks for clearing this up for me. That is my learning for today. As others may have been as confused as I was I have copied your answer to the CCC list. Thanks also to Mel Andress who sent a similar answer to help clear up my confusion. Gordon ----- Original Message ----- From: Hugh and Ruth Dibbs <hdibbs@intranet.ca> To: Gordon A. WATTS <gordon_watts@telus.net> Sent: Wednesday, 07 June, 2000 11:09 AM Subject: Re: [CCC-L] We are very sorry, John "Pairing" is an arrangement between pairs of MPs who plan to vote on opposite sides of a motion but will be unavoidably absent. Their votes cancel each other out and thus do not affect the final tally. It is considered better than just abstaining or being absent because they have stated their position on the issue. I hope the vote on bill C-206 may not have much impact on the Census Issue. Perhaps this bill was too extreme in accessing information and one concern was that 30 years for the release of information was too short. Certainly all the cabinet ministers and party leaders (I think) were against it. I do fear the resolving census issue may be delayed to after the next election and the collection of the 2001 Census. Ruth Dibbs.