THINGS WE CANADIANS CAN DO TO PROMOTE THE CANADA JAY AS OUR NATIONAL BIRD

 

1. Buy the book entitled “The Canada Jay as Canada’s National Bird?” (when it is available in the spring of 2021) and gift it to your friends and even better, give a copy to your local federal Member of Parliament and any influential folks you might know;
    

2. Contact your local federal Member of Parliament by email, by telephone, or even better, in person and let them know that you want to see the Canada Jay officially recognized as our National Bird;
    

3. Venture outdoors to your nearest boreal forest, whether it be a national or provincial park or a ski mountain, and seek out the Canada Jay to see how beautiful and friendly these birds truly are and to appreciate the magnificent habitat they live in;
    

4. Introduce your children and your grandchildren (or any children!) to the Canada Jay and do not forget to bring along your camera for a photograph they will never forget;
    

5. Make a donation to a favourite local, national and/or international organization that is committed to saving Canada’s boreal forests, conserving our birds, protecting our national and provincial parks, and/or fighting climate warming;
    

6. For those lucky enough to entertain Canada Jays at your backyard feeders, ensure that your feeders are clean and filled with fresh food and safe from window strikes and predation by cats, hawks and owls;
    

7. Visit the Canada Jay web site (www.canadajay.org) to sign the petition to be sent to the federal government, and if you are a celebrity or otherwise influential person, please consider taking it one step further and provide an endorsement quote to be placed on the web site;
    

8. If you are a member of a stakeholder organization with strong roots in Canada, whether nature-related or not, convince your organization to write a letter of endorsement (see the web site for a template if needed) which can be included on the web site but also sent to federal politicians;
    

9. Use your local print and electronic media in whatever way you can, e.g. letter to a newspaper, phone call to a radio station, an article in a magazine, a blog or podcast on the internet, as well as social media, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., to promote the Canada Jay as our National Bird (hashtags #CanadaJay and #NationalBird); 
    

10. And if you are a federal politician hopefully reading these words, whether serving the ruling party or not, please do everything in your political power to officially recognize the Canada Jay, truly the most Canadian bird, as our country’s new national symbol.