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

[Darcy Casselman]

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 2:59 PM, Russell McOrmond
<russellmcormond at gmail.com> wrote:
>  Agreed, but trying to second-guess that will drive you nuts and not
> likely get something useful anyway.
>...
>  But outcomes were different -- Sheila was pushed out of her riding
> by the Martin Liberals, and Bulte lost in a tight race where
> technology folks like Cory Doctorow made a huge difference.

And Joey DeVilla, who lived there.  (Who's a good guy despite being a
Microsoft shill. :) (Sorry, tangent :).

The difference between Parkdale-High Park in 2006 and
Kitchener-Waterloo today was that the High Park race was clearly a
three-way race.  Peggy Nash was a good candidate and she stood a
chance of being elected.  Joey and people like him being at
all-candidates meetings bringing up Ms Bulte's position in the pocket
of the content lobbies helped put her over the top.

Kitchener-Waterloo is a two-way race between Peter Braid and Andrew
Telegdi.  No-one else stands a serious chance.  Neither are great on
copyright.  Peter Braid is interested and may even be able to talk
about it, but as we can see from his tweet, he thinks blanket DRM
protection is a great thing for "innovation," and is clearly
delusional about what that word means.  I'm curious what Telegdi might
say about it now, as an opposition candidate.  I may have to look into
it and get back to you.

>> representative in Parliament.  And, actually, I really like Andrew
>> Telegdi who, even though he's kind of bad with tech issues (if the
>> run-up to C-60 is anything to go by),
>
>  Do we know this?  Have people from the community kept in touch? Is
> he a local MP that will listen to the concerns of local constituents?

I'm going by Matt Skala's summary of his discussions with Mr Telegdi
during the C-60 debacle.  If you're in conversation with Matt, you'd
have to ask him for more detail, since I can't find them online
anymore.  But from what I recall, they were... disappointing.  The
impression I got from his write-up was that Telegdi simply didn't
understand the issue and chose to toe the party line.  Matt might have
a different impression.

As for whether Telegdi will stand up for his constituents, I draw to
your attention the case of Helmut Oberlander
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Oberlander), whom the Chretien
government wanted to strip of his Canadian citizenship without process
and deport him for the crime of being forced to work for the Nazis as
an interpreter when he was 17, even though there was no evidence he
was in any way involved with any Nazi war crimes.  Telegdi took the
not-uncontroversial stand of fighting is deportation and demanded that
the matter be handed by the courts, not government fiat.  Chretien
didn't like him very much after that.

I think we need more MPs like him, not fewer.

>  I receive silence from all the candidates but Cathy in the KW riding
> last election. I'm not a constituent, and have already received more
> feedback this election from Peter Braid than last.

Peter Braid was nearly invisible last election.  He was a no-show at
both the all-candidates meetings I attended.

>  Has Mr. Telegdi been approached?  Has he been made aware of the
> possible issue, and been briefed on policies that might swing
> fence-sitters who consider tech issues important to him?

Probably not, but yes, I think he should be made aware.

>  Sitting in their offices over the years I've come to the feeling
> that there isn't the differences between candidates running under
> various banners that the national campaigns suggest there is.  There
> may be a big difference between the leaders, but they aren't the folks
> running in our ridings.  Some of them have even switched parties over
> the year when the leaders have headed in odd directions.

I think MPs generally are good people who do a very difficult job and
don't get nearly enough credit for the work they do or what they have
to put up with.

>  The way to correct this is to push for strong local candidates.  If
> a party I liked ran someone I didn't know in the riding, I would
> ignore them.   I want to know that they will be available to me
> between elections, not pretend to care during an election.
>
>  And you think this will be true of the next leader of that party?
> Do you think it was true of all the past leaders in the various
> parties that merged to become the Conservative party?

I don't, actually.  But Joe Clarke and Preston Manning aren't around
anymore.  As for the future, I can't say.  But I'm not optimistic.

If Peter Braid were the sort of MP who I thought might be able to
change his party for the better, I might be less forceful in rejecting
him.  There are Conservative MPs I respect, and who I think could make
a difference.  He's not one of them.

>  *IF* you think he is a good local MP, and *IF* you think that Mr.
> Telegdi wasn't, wouldn't voting for him be pushing forward the idea
> that only the leaders matter and we don't have a say?  I'm not saying
> that either is true -- I have never met Mr. Telegdi, and have no
> opinion about him one way or the other.

I don't think Mr Braid is a good MP.  But he will talk to people and
may even say the right things.  As you see from his tweet, though, he
will happily toe the party line.

I do think Mr Telegdi was a good MP, because he has shown he will put
his principles and his constituents' interests ahead of his party.
He's weak on copyright, and that's a shame, but not enough to convince
me I shouldn't vote for him.

Darcy.