Canadian NDP Leader Praises P2P Communities

newtley writes "The New Democrats' Jack Layton has become the first leader of a major Canadian political party to acknowledge the importance of the Internet during a federal election. He's using YouTube to carry his message specifically to the online community, launching it on P2Pnet. 'We don't want to see hidden fees and gouging and service slow-downs all in the interests of promoting the objectives of certain large corporations,' Layton says." Other party members have also spoken out against increased internet regulation. We've been following the Canadian net neutrality debate for quite some time.

Comments

Wrong Tag

[nurb432]

Need to include ' its a trap'..

Re:Wrong Tag

[canuck57]

It is a trap and not a joke. The NDP have never left less government debt in their terms of office. Provinces like Saskatchewan have 11 billion dollars in debt. While that many not sound like much, they have less than 1 million people to support it. They love credit spending like no other.

Most experienced Canadians know NDP as socialists. Nationalization is a key plug of theirs.

Laytoon would say anything to get elected be he mean it or not. World readers need to know it is routine that Canadian candidates lie often.

Re:Wrong Tag

[Erioll]

Except of course for the Alberta Progressive Conservative party, which reduced taxes, eliminated the deficit AND the provincial debt (it is now completely gone).

What the USA calls "right-wing" may not act like it at all, but in Canada generally fiscal conservatism means such, because we have an actual example of such that happened, not just theory like down south.

Re:Wrong Tag

[IgnoramusMaximus]

Oh yea, the Alberta Conservatives were, in their great, millions of years spanning foresight, entirely responsible for putting all that oil in all that sand in Alberta and then for driving global oil prices through the roof only so that they can rake in billions in royalties ... no?

But then again this is, and has always been, on par for the so-called "Conservatives" world-wide: take with great fanfare all credit for things you had absolutely nothing to do with, while at the same time trying to project blame for everything you've fucked up onto others.

Re:Wrong Tag

[Have Brain Will Rent]

$11 Billion divided among 1 Million people is more like $11,000 per person.

The example he is using is for the debt created in one province by a provincial political party. The equivalent of the debt of a state in the U.S. - is it really common in the U.S. to see state debt at $11,000/person?

The left of center governments in Canada typically create huge debt while the right of center governments create smaller debt. The previous left of center federal government (known as the "Liberals") ran up a huge debt - they after heavy pressure from international financial entities and from the Canadian people they paid alot of it off. Not by fiscal discipline but rather by raising taxes and off-loading costs to provincial governments - not by cutting program spending. The current federal government (known as the "Conservatives") actually cut spending, lowered taxes to people and business and paid off a significant portion of the national debt.

It's been a similar story at the provincial level.

Re:Wrong Tag

[Have Brain Will Rent]

If the first was a lie then you could have easily disproven it by giving an example of an NDP government that left office with less government debt than when they took office. As to the second I agree that government ownership is frequently a plank of the NDP platform - they've downplayed it for a long time now because they realize how unpopular it was.

Re:Wrong Tag

[MarkRose]

It's not polite to refer to King Ralph as a monkey, even if drunk.

Re:Wrong Tag

[canuck57]

Except of course for the Alberta Progressive Conservative party, which reduced taxes, eliminated the deficit AND the provincial debt (it is now completely gone).

All Alberta did was elect two successive by the people representatives as our leaders. Yes, I live in Alberta. Neither Klein nor successor Stelmach are professional politicians, both came from the working class from their successful stints in real careers. That is, they are not in-the-pocket of vested interests behind the scenes. When Klein got in, he spent the first 6 months on a hack and burn of government waste and excess. Civil service people still scream at this government overhaul event as the provincial debt was increasing.

Alberta voters tend to be smarter and avoided the liberal left promise of stars, spending and statist government at our, taxpayers expense. People here know when a candidate promises something they intuitively think, how is it going to be paid for?

While some say it is oil, they are over stating the facts. Klein did this before oil was lucrative and only $20/barrel and the industry was barely hanging on. And in lucrative times, the government piggy banked the increased revenue money which reduces taxes in a sound sustainable way.

It does not take long to turn around a out of control government, just a decent, honest, practical politician with lots of power that isn't doing the job for self ego. Even on Klein's last days, he would sit down with normal people and say hello.

What the USA calls "right-wing" may not act like it at all, but in Canada generally fiscal conservatism means such, because we have an actual example of such that happened, not just theory like down south.

We will see in the next few weeks. Canada's currency took a wild dip as the government is ailing out the banks too. Fiat currency management is on both sides of the border, they are not overlooking the Bank of Canada's propensity to create fiat money.

Brain?

[WillKemp]

Strewth! A politician with a brain? Somebody vote for him, please!

Re:Brain?

[bryxal]

Actually... As much as I agree with his tech views. Most of his plans are completely idealistic and borderline delusional. The leader is also a scummy politician. After a while you will see that he is an opportunist that only cares about what the media will give out and not the actual issues and doesn't take the time to try to explain a in depth analysis and how to actually solve it. Instead he spews populist jib jab on most topics. The only reason he is getting this right is because of Charlie Angus one of the Best supporters of Net Neutrality and Copyright Reform that is part of his party. So to recap: Charlie Angus = Good Jack Layton (leader) = Bad

Re:Brain?

[Kinetix303]

Again with the co-op smear. The way a housing co-op works is high income residents pay much higher rent so that low income residents don't have to pay as much. That way, it doesn't have to be subsidized by government at all. Either you don't understand how a housing co-op works or don't care. This smear was discredited more than a decade ago. When raised now it just illustrates the ignorance of the person who is repeating it.

New Democrats?

[DirtySouthAfrican]

New Democratic Party, isn't it? We're not American, or did I not get the memo?

Jack Layton

[nightfire-unique]

I've been a Liberal party supporter my entire life. It ended the day the walked out on the omnibus crime bill vote to prevent the government from falling.

I always like Jack Layton but I didn't spend much time reviewing his party, their voting record, or his speeches. After I decided to avoid the Liberals last year (or earlier this year.. can't remember) I started doing some real research. And I have to say, he is the first politician (at that level) I've actually admired. He speaks with a level of candor and immense credibility that is so rare.

He seems to genuinely care about his fellow man, and want to solve conflicts rather than fan the flames.

In short, he's precisely the opposite of this neocon wannabe we currently have running the country. Jack, if you happen to be reading this (and it wouldn't surprise me) you've got my vote. :)

Re:Jack Layton

[Kinetix303]

Bollocks. He lived in a mixed income co-operative housing unit that uses the higher rent charged to high-income earners to subsidize the costs of the lower-income units. It was not government subsidized housing. In fact, the housing unit would have failed financially if there were no higher income earners living there. You clearly have no understanding of how mixed incoming cooperative housing actually works, or you're just trying to toss an already much-discredited 15 year old smear with no basis in reality.

Re:Jack Layton

[pureevilmatt]

Patrick Stewart + Tom Selleck = Jack Layton = Vote NDP

Re:Bravo

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm likely voting NDP not because I want them to form a government, but because I want them to be the opposition.

The opposition is there to hold the government accountable for its actions, and sadly, the Liberals have done a terrible job of that lately.

What's with the P2Pnet logo?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are the people in the P2Pnet logo waving handguns around? I have nothing against proper use of handguns, but what is that in the logo?

Regulation

[Narishma]

But isn't increased Internet regulation necessary to prevent big companies to do whatever they want at the expense of regular users?

Re:Bravo

[thestreetmeat]

People seem to have very distorted memories when it comes to Rae's government in the early 90s. The NDP took over just as the economy was heading into the worst recession since the great depression. His government did what pretty much every other government does in a recession - increase spending to break the cycle. I seriously doubt the Liberals would have done anything different. If Rae did anything wrong, it was to neglect his main support on the left with his wage cuts and mandatory unpaid vacation measures. Measures aimed at reducing the deficit.

Of course, once the voters put Mike Harris in power, he simply had 16,000 public servants laid off. 6 of one, half-dozen of the other.

That's goo, but I'd never vote NDP

[ip_freely_2000]

They're just to left-wing wacky on too many issues to be in power. I like them as a solid opposition though, they keep things relatively honest.

I've been voting Conservative since I started making good money.....but their copyright stance is just stupid and American. I may vote Green this time.

Populist measures of NDP

[randito]

The NDP is pretty tech savvy usually. They have two other platform points that are interesting, although populist:

1. Ban bank fees for using competing banks ATMs. Canadian banks are much larger than their american counterparts, and are more profitable. The mortgage crisis here has been avoided due to more goverment regulation, and the banks are expected to continue to profit at the expense of poorer people who are hit with elevated service charges. Bank fees on ATMs stiffle competition by encouraging people to stay with the big five banks that have the power to litter every city with thousands of bank machines. In quélbec almost all of the ATMs are in the hands of one credit union in quebec , la caisse populaire desjardins, which has 80% + of the market here.
2. Ban cellphone contracts and cellphone locking and allow users to switch companies while keeping their telephone number. The allowing to switch companies while keeping your number has already been implemented by the canadian govt, but the 3 year cellphone contract remains. The government also auctioned off a large chunk of spectrum, reserving a large percentage for new contenders. We are on the right path, but the contracts are prohibitive to competition.

Disclaimer: I am not an NDP supporter, I am actually a card carrying liberal. I just like these policies.

Re:Bravo

[TheSpoom]

And let's not talk about what Mike Harris actually did to this province. My brain has still blocked that particular memory to protect itself.