Petitions are a way to highlight an injustice/a wrong. They are normally sent to levels of government. There are local, territorial, national, and international concerns and the respective petition needs to be sent to the correct level of government.
Each level of government wants to see petitions submitted in a format that they prescribe. If it fails this test then the work you put into your petition may be for naught. Find out the right format and how to submit it to get it accepted.
There are also petitions created by different groups. A local or national group that is working on the issue might have a petition up on their website. You can sign the petition on their site to add your name.
There are also generic petition sites where you can create a petition like Avaaz, Lead Now, Change, The Petition Site (used to be Care2), etc. These kinds of sites can start to get a conversation on an issue but to be effective it is good to submit an ‘official’ petition through the level of government you need to address. The nice thing about these sites is that the media can jump onto them and hopefully do a story about your petition or the issue you are addressing.
Once you have created your petition get the word out. Post on social media, send it to other organizations/people that may support you/have similar goals, send it out to the media, etc. A modern way to do it is to generate a QR code for it, print out the code and put it on a pin/badge so that when you talk with someone you can ask them to sign up by scanning the QR code – right then and there.
Petitions are entry level activism. They have their place but nothing really replaces demonstrations, actions, art, going to talk with the political representative (especially if they get 20-50 constituents making appointments and showing up and telling them of their concerns). Face to face with the public servants is extremely import.
Unfortunately, as activists, our messages are not being heard which is why many groups are doing non-violent direct action/civil disobedience. This is a whole new level for many people. The importance of the issues demands that we do everything we can to effect change. Petitions are a good education and entry level to expose the issue to a larger audience but we know that they rarely work – especially for politcally unpalatiable issues like climate change.
City Petitions
- City of Edmonton
- Strathcona County / Sherwwod Park
- St. Albert – I was not able to find a specific page regarding petitions
- Leduc
Provincial Petitions – Alberta
Federal Guidelines
Sign Some Petitions
On the weekly Activist Agenda posts you will find a list of several petitions that are currently available for you and others to sign. Please consider spending some time going through them and signing the ones that are of interest to you.
Activist Agenda 