Technology Issues Ignored in Canadian Elections

Jem Berkes writes "Today's Toronto Star has a good article on Canadian political parties' positions on important technology issues such as Copyright reform/WIPO, spam, and privacy. With the elections only a week away, it's surprising that these important issues have attracted little or no debate. The current Heritage Committee, for instance, has recommended that Canada ratify WIPO, and few citizens (let alone politicians) are even aware of this issue."

Comments

Surprising? I think not.

[ezraekman]

With the elections only a week away, it's surprising that these important issues have attracted little or no debate.

No it's not, and you go on to explain why:

The current Heritage Committee, for instance, has recommended that Canada ratify WIPO, and few citizens (let alone politicians) are even aware of this issue."

Unfortunately for our children, Joe Average sees that his friends and family are getting in trouble for what used to be expected of him to do, but doesn't ever make the connection. It's up to us to explain to our less paranoid friends and family exactly *why* things are headed in the wrong direction. Of course, it's somewhat difficult to do without sounding paranoid schizophrenic yourself, but do it anyway. At this point, it's our civic duty.

Re:Suprising?

[isolationism]

That's about the size of it. If one went by the headlines (I couldn't stay awake for 10 minutes of live debates if I tried) it sounds like the big ticket issues are exactly those: gay rights, foreign policy (particularly vis-a-vis America), and fund abuse/scandals.

Even when the levies were imposed some time ago on recordable media they went through without much more than a whisper, despite a good number of people protesting by writing their letters.

I doubt very much if there's going to be any serious discussion between the Liberals and Conservatives with respect to any kind of technology issues unless at least 80% of their prospective voters will understand it clearly or care enough to make a voting decision based on their position. Sure there are other parties that may have policies surrounding the issue -- but the grits seem to be neck and neck with the tories, and the other parties are barely given credit in the news as they are presumably expected to win no more than 7-10 seats between them.