To respond to Mech's question. Yes, the owner of the coin has to start the race by placing the coin in a cache and then letting the race run it's course. I see what you're getting at by placing the coin in a cache in Southern Ontario where more people visit caches. You were suggesting coins must start in Thunder Bay. I was thinking that the coin should start in "NorWest" Ontario and let that definition be loose.
The second thread going on here leads to, can we contact people who pick up our coin and influence their placement of the coin (or not, in the case of traveling with your coin and logging it in and out of caches as they go.) My question would be in the reading of the second Traveling Rule "Movement of a coin by a relative, friend, or business associate is prohibited," who is my neighbour? I mean, who is my friend? When does a geocaching contact become a friend? When you broker an agreement for them to move a coin in a way they may not have if you had not contacted them?

I'd say, if a coin is "stuck" in someone's hands, an email is fine. But contacting people who have picked up the coin in order to have them treat your coin in a way they may not with simply the tag and your "goal/mission" statement online is going too far.
In the end, we have to trust that we're all going to play the game the same way we want others to play the game: fairly, with a minimum of intervention on our parts.