Be a voice for cycling in your community

by Jamie Stuckless, Executive Director, Share the Road Cycling Coalition

On June 7th, Ontario residents went to the polls and elected a new government. There will be 124 Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) heading to Queen’s Park and 73 of them will be part of the Ontario Legislature for the first time. We want to work with cycling supporters (you!) across the province to ensure that each and every new and returning MPP knows that cycling matters to Ontarians and to their constituents. And there is no better time to do that than right now.

This week, we encourage you to send a post-election congratulatory note to your local MPP to start (or continue!) the cycling conversation with them. As Share the Road works to be a provincial voice for cycling at Queen’s Park, it is crucial that MPPs hear from their constituents and community leaders about the demand for cycling in their riding as well.

A simple template for a congratulatory note is below. Please feel free to use this as a guide and personalize it to send to your local MPP and be sure to cc jamie@sharetheroad.ca on your note. Thanks for taking the time to be a voice for cycling in your community!

MPP (last name),

Congratulations on your successful (re-)election as the MPP for (riding name). My name is (full name) and I am a resident in your community. I am also a member of (local cycling organization if applicable) and a supporter of the provincial Share the Road Cycling Coalition.

We have been working to build a more bicycle-friendly (community name) and have seen some recent successes, including (share if your community has a bicycle-friendly community award, built a new bike lane, hosted a Bike Month event, etc). Road safety and the choice to get around by bicycle are important issues for me and I look forward to working with you to leverage the opportunities that exist for cycling in our community.

I would like to coordinate a small bike ride with you and a few cycling leaders from the riding and will touch base again in a few weeks to arrange the details with your team. Until then, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions.

Happy Bike Month,

(your name)

On a related note, if you have been working on cycling with an MPP who was not re-elected, send them a thank you note for their commitment to cycling.