Article content continued

Once Suits and Boots’ initial letter-writing campaign ended, Peterson urged group members to write all the senators again, particularly those on the Senate’s Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, to take its committee meetings on the road to hear from concerned Canadians across the country.

Last week, the Senate committee voted unanimously in favour of doing just that — a huge win for Suits and Boots and all of Canada.

Former Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons, who was appointed to the Senate in October by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, put forth the motion to debate going on the road to hear the concerns of Canadians “from a variety of interests and across all party lines.”

Simons says she and Patti LaBoucane-Benson — the only two Albertans on the committee — are “seized with the responsibility” to represent all Albertans with regard to the bill.

“The senators on the committee understand that this is a really important bill and that the committee is the last chance to get it right,” said Simons.

Alberta Sen. Doug Black, who is not on the committee but has been an outspoken critic of the bill, says he’s never seen the kind of volume of letters on any other topic in the past — even doctor-assisted suicide.

Did Suits and Boots move the needle on motivating the Senate to commit to going through the almost 300-page bill line by line?

“Without question,” said Black. “I’ve received less letters than some of the senators because everyone already knows that I’m very opposed to Bill C-69, and I received thousands. I would say some senators have received tens of thousands of emails and letters, and what that communicates loud and clear is that this bill will hurt already hurting people. This bill needs radical fixing or it needs to be put through the chipper.”

Peterson says if this campaign helps Canada dodge the bullet that is Bill C-69, all of the cost and effort will be well worth it.

“The magic of Suits and Boots is that it gives a voice to severely normal people across Canada who up until now have felt powerless.

“I get senators calling me back and their staff saying, ‘Rick, we’ve never had a campaign like this before,’ ” says Peterson.

“I believe that now that this spark has been lit, there is no stopping it.”

Licia Corbella is a Postmedia opinion columnist. lcorbella@postmedia.com