Canada's own DMCA

[Christopher Browne]

On 5/4/05, Charly Baker <cmb-h7HJ8Pof2EbbR28j2ZUwYgC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Wednesday May 4 2005 10:39 am, John McGregor wrote:
> > >"Canadian heritage minister Liza Frulla has recently proposed changes to
> > > Canadian copyright law that would allow US companies to sue Canadian
> > > Citizens."
> >
> > Given the federal political climate, the proposed change to our
> > copyright law was more likely a bone thrown to to the Conservatives and
> > the Bloc, than anything else.
> >
> The bloc wouldn't like it and the Reform party wouldn't understand it.  This
> bone was thrown to the south, where the profit it is to protect goes

Actually, it's a strange sort of "bone" to throw, unless it's
something that they're assuming that a change of government would
kill, such that it essentially doesn't matter what sorts of silly
things they might feign to legislate at this point...

The "Fiberals" have been jumping right onto the obvious sorts of
things to propose as policy:

 - Giving money to people they would expect to get support from;

 - Proposing immigration law relaxations as an transparent play to
immigrant voters

Come to think of it, this one fits into...

 - Proposing something that fits into the category of "ingratiating
ourselves with
   the Americans" which makes it look as if electing someone else
would break that.

It is sad how transparent their ploys are getting.  If they had a real
"statesman" around, they'd have enough spin going on to make it NOT
patently obvious that these are election ploys.

Or maybe it's that they have let things get so desperately bad to get
into the corner where they have no real choices at all.

Either way, it's a stunning demonstration of political incompetence,
which is really remarkable, as the Liberal party ought to have a
"deeper bench" than to get stuck that way.

But I guess it's not entirely new.  The Tories disappeared in a single
election, going from Mulroney's last majority to, what, two members,
one of whom bailed to the Liberals to become premier of Quebec.  The
new party called "Conservative" isn't Tory, and Ontarians did indeed
perceive it to be nothing more than "relabelled Reform", which is why
they didn't do any better.

It will be quite curious what happens in the next election:

- The Conservatives, I mean, "the party formerly known as Western
Reform", aren't the PCs or "Tories", and will continue to have a hard
time attracting Eastern votes.  It would be REALLY HARD for them to
change themselves enough to attract Ontario votes in quantity.  It
might well be easier to resurrect the Progressive Conservative party,
and it has been pretty well in the grave for a decade or more...

- The Liberals have demonstrated stunning political incompetence, and,
based on this, deserve to lose.  (That's quite independent of whether
or not they deserve to be out on their ear based on Gomery Inquiry
issues; that could be an additional "moral" reason to deserve to be
turfed out...)

- The Bloc can't form a government; they can only steal seats from the Liberals.

- The NDP aren't in a position to really capitalize on others' losses;
they're too much a specialty party to win.

I just can't fathom, at this point, what party Ontario voters would,
in general, consider voting for.
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