Conservative dissent (and hypocrisy) on Copyright

Via Saskboy, a interesting guest blog on Small Dead Animals. Looks like lance is hopefully one of many Tories now reconsidering their support for the freedom-hating Conservatives (as NDP candidate Dana Larsen notes, the NDP is definitely the most libertarian of Canada's major parties).

This is good to see. Hopefully, some of those voters will consider looking at the NDP in their ridings, who will no doubt be the party that pushes back hardest on this horrible legislation.

And this all reminded me of a little display of Conservative hypocrisy on this issue I observed this weekend. On the bus back from Kingston, there was a guy in front of me a couple of rows which a black Macbook. I was checking out its beautiful design when I noticed that his background was a picture of Harper and his white male caucus. So I'm assuming this guy is a Conservative staffer of some sort, because who else has a Conservative background for their Mac?

So I can resist, I have to trail my eyes lower to see what programs he has in the Dock at the bottom of the screen. And what do I find, icons for Limewire and Transmission (a Mac bittorrent client)!?!

I suppose I could've asked the guy, but I wonder if he is happy with Prentice trying to turn him into a criminal? Because I doubt he has those programs for sharing materials he owns the copyright for.

NOW the Cons care about meeting international treaty obligations

I just had to pop back in to comment on the new Copyright law, Bill C-61, as I can see myself blogging about it regularly as it grinds its way through the legislative process. Yes, Jim Prentice is right that the new law will bring Canada into compliance with the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) treaty signed by the previous Liberal government over a decade ago.

Can any remember another international treaty, signed by the Liberal government about a decade ago, that the Tories have had no compunctions about breaking or even really trying to meet its goals?

Hint - it has the same name as Stephane Dion's dog.

And I think everyone, on all points of the political spectrum, can agree that climate change is more important an issue than internet piracy.

This C-61 is many things, but it's probably most frustrating as a gross misuse of the time and attention of our legislators, who should be solving, you know, problems that actually negatively impact Canadians, not multinational media conglomerates.

Abstaining from blogging

Hi blogosphere, I missed you. I finally submitted the thesis (Electoral Reform in PEI: A case study in deliberative democracy, a future classic) last month. Now that I'm looking for honest employment, I suppose I could blog on a more regular basis, but I'm really enjoying the laziness lately.

Just had to come back to hype up this brilliant idea. In that spirit, I may have to abstain from washing the rest of the dishes piling up near the kitchen sink ;)

I've got some thoughts on the Irish referendum, so I'll probably be back with those sometime next week. Over the weekend, I'll be going to this event at Queen's. I understand there still might be spots, so if your in the area and a political dork, maybe I'll see you there!

Confidential to IP, congrats, I think you'll do a stellar job. Let me know if you need any help!

Vote Liberal - if you want a Harper majority!

As I walked around the nation's capital today, I couldn't help but notice a great story and accompanying graphic on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen.




The article, by Glen McGregor (who's not only a great journalist but was really nice to this kid when I was Ottawa bureau chief for CUP), does a great job of highlighting the Liberal record - which clearly shows that they aren't standing up to Harper and, as such, are effectively giving him a majority.

As the article tells us:

"The Official Opposition supported the government on extending the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, motions on its centrepiece crime bill, and on other parliamentary arcana, such as a bill regarding the settlement of international investment disputes … The voting records support the growing contention that the Liberals are not truly functioning as an official Opposition as they seek to avoid running an election behind struggling leader Stéphane Dion.”

In the last election, the Liberals desperately asked Canadians to forget their record of failed promises, forget that inconvenient money laundering scam in Quebec and vote Liberal so they could "stop Harper's hidden agenda".

And what did those Liberal MPs go to Ottawa and do? Well, first they were distracted by organizing for their leadership race. And then once Dion got in and, once it became clear he'd wasn't going to have an office in Langevin Block anytime soon, they're now giving Harper a de facto majority so they can avoid facing the voters.

So I would think voters will be asking themselves, why vote Liberal?

Because it's now clear that, after the next election, your Liberal MP will be going back to Ottawa to organize for the next leadership race and stay in their seats when it comes time to stand up for the things they said they would fight for on the campaign trail.

Thankfully Canadians can vote for another party with a record of standing up for their beliefs - and against the Harper agenda.

Liberal blogfather: "how dare you disparage the family"

Just had to comment on Liblog founder and charter member of the Dionistas Jason Cherniak's blog post from earlier today where he begs Liberal bloggers to not take out their well-justified frustration over their party's parliamentary caucuses decision to give Stephen Harper the majority he wants so badly.

Other bloggers have chimed in on the absurdity of this far better than I, like my friend Idealistic Pragmatist who points out that Jason is the progressive blogsophere's top partisan bloggers.

Even prominent Libloggers seem taken aback by Jason's call to just shut up and smallow Dion's bitter abstention medicine silently. My friend Scott Tribe has a great post talking about the role of bloggers in the US Democratic Pary and how they should be seen by parties as windows on what the grassroots thinks. Dion seems to be deaf to their pleas, so I'll simplify it for him, your blogging supporters think you need to grow a pair.


All Politics is Local has a good post where he talks about the yawning gap between Liberal rhetoric and action:

If the government is destroying our country, then we need an election. If M. Dion doesn't want an election, fine. Then let's work with the Tories on the budget to try to find some middle ground. Let's drop the fire and brimstone rhetoric. If this government is terrible, M. Dion should be able as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada to convince the Canadian people of this fact and win an election. If the government is bad but workable, let's make it work. M. Dion could demonstrate leadership by working for a better compromise.

.

But really, after telling Liberal supporters hysterically for years that a Conservative government would be the end of Canada as we know it, is anyone surprised that their activists are upset that the party leadership is now propping up Harper?

Liberal leadership are now choking on the bitter fruit of what their rhetoric has produced. Who wants to bet that's it's not so easy to recruit Liberal volunteers when Dion finally decides to face voters?

"“Why vote for the Liberal party when the Liberal party won't stand up and vote for you?”

It's not often I agree with Peter Van Loan, but I think this quote should be in the mind of all progressive voters when they're getting ready to cast their votes in the next election.

Despite staking his political reputation on the environment, Liberal leader Stephane Dion ordered his party to stay away from the House tonight on a vote on a opposition motion of non-confidence in the Harper government on their inaction on reducing greenhouse gases.

Thankfully, voters concerned about the environment have another party in parliament who are willing to take action on climate change.

Source: Globe and Mail.

Still entitled to their entitlements ... 26 months later

I just couldn't resist blogging about this one - the latest Liberal opposition motion, a clearly desperate attempt to distract voters from the Dion-Harper coalition. And it's not just this Dipper saying that, Canada's foremost blogger-from-France Paul Wells agrees.

After a budget amendment that decried the Tory government's "NDP-like lack of fiscal prudence" (which of course ignores the evidence from the Finance department that shows that NDP goverments in Canada have had the BEST record of fiscal surpluses of any party), now the Liberals are bringing forward a motion that "condemn[s] the irresponsible and self-serving actions on Nov. 25, 2005, by the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois which led to the installation of a government that is hostile to the rights and needs of vulnerable Canadians."

I've got to agree with the unnamed NDP strategist, this motion is laughable!

Funny, I could've sworn it was CANADIAN VOTERS that put the Harper government in office.

Have the adults left the Official Opposition offices? Do they really think that this sort of whining does anything to bring the Liberals closer to power? Methinks it was precisely this sort of sense of entitlement that led voters to want to turf the Martin government out of office in the first place.

As this blogger notes, "don't expect that the average Canadian is still seething over that last election... they aren't. They've moved on. So should [Liberals]."

And Stephane if you keep this kind of whining up, you'll never get to see the inside of 24 Sussex. The smart Liberal bloggers realize this as well.