December 27, 2006

by Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean

 Citizen Voices has been on line for three months now. We started with an initial chat discussion, followed by 30 blogs and 45 discussion forums on various themes, several of which were inspired by your own initiatives.

 The State visit to Africa was also an opportunity to welcome guest bloggers to our site, including members of the delegation who accompanied me on the visit, as well as other Canadians working on-site on numerous development and cooperation projects.

 Those daily blogs sparked a great deal of interest, and our site readership doubled. This is very encouraging because, from the outset, we hoped that the site would become a real place for exchanges, mutual reflection and dialogue.

 The holiday season is always a good time to look back on memorable events and on concerns that arose over the past year. It is also a time for resolutions, when we dare to dream about what we want to achieve. I would like to hear your thoughts on that. What are your dreams or aspirations for 2007?

 My wish is that we will be able to break down the walls of indifference, of self-centredness, all the distances that separate us, and think more and more about projects that unite our strengths and our ideas. I am thinking especially of young people. I would like us to identify ways to bring young people closer together, from every part of the country and every walk of life. I would like us to reflect together on how we can create opportunities to enable young people to share their concerns, their aspirations and their solutions, and to make their voices heard. What do you think?

 To make this dream a reality, we need to think about it together. This site is a good starting point for doing that.