2008-04-03

The Penny: "It's not a priority for us now" Whaaa...?

Dear Mr. Flaherty,

Regarding Private Members Bill, C-531.

Sir, I was stupefied by the summary dismissal the press is reporting you gave to the idea of discontinuing the one cent coin. "It's not a priority for us now," sounds alarmingly like, "We didn't think of it, so we won't consider it now."

I am not an NDP voter, so I have no party-axe to grind. This is an issue of common sense. The thing that will attract the voters your party will need in order to gain majority status is an ongoing exhibition of common sense, which in this case will lead to a lack of common cents.

Save our money! Don't spend any more on circulating a coin that has become entirely annoying and totally pointless. Let wire transactions continue to the nearest cent but let our pockets grow a little lighter -- and release a little bit more copper for the whole world to benefit from. (see this article from Scientific American as referenced at slashdot).

Good ideas are worth looking at no matter who had them first. Please give this one more than passing notice.

Sincerely,

Arthur N. Klassen etc. etc.

cc: Hon. Pat Martin, MP for Winnipeg Centre,
Hon. xxxxx xxxxxx, MP for my home riding

1 comment:

Arthur said...

Since writing my letter and posting it here, I've gotten two answers from MPs!

The one from Jim Flaherty's office was of a pretty non-descript, dead-tree variety. It didn't even echo back the Bill number I was commenting on, so it was a good thing I hadn't flurried him.

The one from my (Conservative) MP was much more hip. It came as an e-mail enclosing a PDF (not GPG signed or anything, but maybe that'll come). I include its pithier parts here:

Thank you for your correspondence in support of Bill C-531, an Act to amend the Currency Act and the Royal Canadian Mint Act (abolition of the cent). I appreciate you taking the time to carefully set out your ideas.

Thank you for the link for the interesting article regarding the future shortage of copper. I appreciate your interest in this issue.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to write me.


Some of them do listen, apparently.