Blog: Canada

In Canada's elections last night, voters threw the ruling Liberal party out of power, at least partly because of corruption on the part of the Liberal majority. In western Toronto, one Liberal MP made unusual news recently becuase of a unique form of corruption of her own: taking large campaign contributions from private industry and introducing legislation overwhelmingly favorable to that industry. Sarmite "Sam" Bulte, author of a report recommending drastic revisions to Canada's Copyright Act which would strengthen existing content industry monopolies, threw a huge $250/plate fundraiser full of content industry representatives. Sadly, In the "States" this is so commonplace as to not warrant surprise, but Canadians still cling to a tradition of independent-thinking elected officials, and Bulte received a healthy dose of bad press spurred on by online rights advocates like Cory Doctorow and my newly Canadian friend Ren Bucholz.

How much due to the general anti-Liberal wind and how much due to the specific campaign over copyright overreach we will never know, but last night Bulte was soundly defeated by NDP candidate Peggy Nash. As Ren wrote,

I think it's impossible to overstate how much Bulte shot herself in the foot. At any point, she could have met the criticisms of her fundraising and ties to the entertainment industry with response that didn't alienate people. . . . But instead, she grouped critics in her riding as "zealots" and ran through a series of platitudes about artists. Even for people who don't think about copyright very much - meaning the vast majority of people in her riding - those responses sounded shrill and empty. This amplified the relatively specialized issue of copyright into a generalized issue of, "Do we want someone who sounds like that to represent us? Again?!" We hear a lot about the "optics" of politics, and Bulte's were way out of focus.

Unfortunately, not all industry shills will be so dumb. Far-right Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was rejected in his Supreme Court nomination in large part because he was outspoken about his extreme views and abrasive in his manner. As a result, extreme conservatives nominated today practice a strategy of complete inscrutability, refusing to divulge any information that could expose their true beliefs to the public. The next unabashedly pro-recording industry MP in Canada will certainly try to at least act as if he is listening to the public interest, couching his beliefs in euphemisms like "innovation" and "protecting artists," leaving all but the most knowledgeable constituents none the wiser.