[kwlug-disc] Parliament adjourned ... bills dead (again!)?

[Russell McOrmond]

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 10:45 AM, Darcy Casselman <dscassel at gmail.com> wrote:
> Russel, this may be a leading question, but as you've talked to him,
> would you think we'd be more likely to get a favourable outcome if
> Marc Garneau was the minister responsible for crafting the next
> copyright bill versus the previous Clement/Moore tag team combo?

  Apologies that I can't offer you the answer you really want.


  I will pick 3 names from each of those two teams you want to talk
about.  None of them in KW area districts so it shouldn't matter for
your voting.  Remember: you should be voting for local representatives
and not for a party or for the President of Canada.


Conservative:

  Tony Clement has some good ideas, but not the support in his
cabinet.  He's been made the spokes-sheep for some pretty stupid
things (Think: Census), and has been a minority voice in cabinet on
some good things (Think telecom ownership issues, UBB, Copyright,
etc).

  James Moore is a bad option for us.  I offered my thinking on this
April Fool at http://BillC32.ca/5307   Chances are he'll have a
different portfolio if he is part of the cabinet that gets the support
of the majority of the house.

  Dean Del Mastro was the Conservative's attack-dog in Committee,
promoting the bill.  Where we agree with the bill he fought on our
side, and where we disagreed he fought against us.  He's been
listening to the Heritage side of the debate in Heritage committee for
years, and us techies will tend to lean on the Industry side of the
debate.  For a Heritage guy he was pretty Industry :-)  He would have
made a better Heritage Minister than parliamentary secretary, but such
is the randomness of these things.  It's not like the most qualified
people are used to fill the right cabinet positions.

Liberals:

  Garneau -- minority voice in shadow cabinet, etc -- sound familiar?
Geeky science dude that understands tech, etc.

  Dan McTeague -- his best friends seem to be Graham Henderson
(President CRIA), Barry Sookman and other lawyers at McCarthy Tetrault
(CRIA's lawyers).  He's spent time to directly attack Michael Geist
and other lawyers and law professors who have been helpful to our
cause.  Nice enough guy in person, and I hope to have some one-on-one
with him after he wins yet again (not a close riding). I wouldn't want
to give him too much control over tech policy because he's getting
VERY bad advise.  He wants that meeting with me, so it will happen ---
eventually.


  Pablo Rodriguez -- Woops, sorry.. had to look up from the
translation as I thought it was one of the Bloc MPs speaking when it
wasn't their turn.  Nop, it was Mr. Rodriguez promoting the views of
the collective societies and creator unions (which, BTW, contradict
our interests or the interests of most of the members of those
societies or unions).



Fantasy Sports version (In a warped dream world that can't exist :-):

  Tony Clement, Marc Garneau and Charlie Angus :-)   I would have
preferred Reg Alcock to any of them, but he isn't even running any
more (despite my yearly emails to him asking him to come back to us
:-)

  Clear as mud?  That's kinda what I'm saying.

   First, none of these folks are in area ridings so you would be best
to focus on the candidates where you do have direct influence whether
they will be part of the chosen 308 who get to decide who forms the
government (and who sits on committees, etc).

  Second, there isn't a *Party* that is clearly better than all others
on technology law issues, just individual candidates that are better
and others that are worse.

   It is better to have the best local MP in opposition that you can
continue conversations with after the election than to have a
government MP that won't talk to you.

  I've been in direct conversation with my Ottawa South MP since
before he was officially nominated by the party.  I've told him I vote
for him despite the party he is with (Liberal), not because of it.  He
has been very helpful as both a government MP and opposition MP in
helping me get meetings with other MPs, bureaucrats, etc.

  This is what I wish for each of you: an MP you are on a first name
basis with who sends you things proactively because he knows it is
important to you. Someone you can have conversations with in his
constituency office or on the street if you happen to meet up.  What
party banner they are running under is really beside the point!


BTW: folks I've met over years http://flora.ca/mp
-- 
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
http://fix.billc32.ca/petition/ict/

"The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
 manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
 portable media player from my cold dead hands!"