paved :: marc weisblott

How about that contest to lead the Liberal Party of Canada? A process lasting longer than a hockey season has officially stultified the pundits paid to keep track of the debate between candidates, reflecting the disillusion of party members who are supposed to be generating enthusiasm for Paul Martin’s replacement, before the July 1 deadline to sign up party members. Warren Kinsella isn’t so quick to write off “the most successful political machine in Western democracy”, even if this eleven-candidate battle has failed to generate sufficient friction. The movement to keep Michael Ignatieff from coasting into contention has merited its own website, Stop Iggy, and reinforced support of military action in Afghanistan becomes one less reason to believe Ignatieff would be a convincing replacement for Stephen Harper. Liblogger Jason Cherniak points out Bob Rae’s effort to develop a different message than his old university roommate “risks turning our Afghanistan policy into meaningless mush”, even though Rae has also vowed to not directly attack his leadership opponents. Greg Morrow is left asking on his democraticSPACE blog whether the Liberals want to present themselves as a top-down or bottom-up party – and if they choose a leader based on elitist appeal alone “both Stephen Harper and Jack Layton will surely see better days ahead”. But the grassroots image cultivated by Gerard Kennedy – who is making the most concerted effort to interact with bloggers – will invariably be accompanied by criticism that he lacks the statesman experience to make it on the world stage, and whether the endorsement of just two dozen of his Queen’s Park colleagues is indicative of a charismatic defect, even if he can make the case that becoming Prime Minister would be a natural progression from his established reputation in Toronto. The longer-shot sitting MPs Maurizio Bevilacqua and Scott Brison are doing their part to argue that, whomever the next Liberal leader turns out to be, they oughta be in the demographic range of the current PM. Meanwhile, Martha Hall Findlay has nothing to lose by articulating the bitterness felt by party faithful, who’d be rallying to amplify her voice – if they weren’t unaccustomed to outsider status.

Bob Rae’s formal launch of his bid to become next federal Leader of the Opposition was accompanied by The Globe and Mail publishing his campaign manifesto Coming out of the Liberal closet behind the subscriber wall, and the Canadian Federation of Students were quick on the protest march with recollections of the “elitist vision for higher education” practiced by the then-NDP Premier of Ontario. However, failing to have his own website ready to coincide with his announcement certainly doesn’t help transmit the idea that Rae’s message has transformed from his brutal recession-era reign at Queen’s Park, and the sections that could be hacked for pre-launch viewing behind the curtain don’t seem too inspired anyhow. Blue Blogging Soapbox blogger Paul Synnott made the effort to plough across the web presences of the starting lineup of Liberal contenders, wondering what became of their confab last month with Joe Trippi – architect of Howard Dean’s seminal MoveOn.org campaign – who offered his insights into playing open source politics: “I think most of the candidates must have been sleeping.” Given the overall dreariness conveyed by this Liberal field of ten candidates or more, perhaps they’d have been better served by a consistently awful template a la MySpace, if not being forced to compress their entire message to a single page, rather than expecting passive visitors to point and click through several different sections that are rarely distinguishable. The more dynamic website from leadership hopeful Carolyn Bennett involves plenty of navigation through sections paying homage to those earthier communication methods like newspapers, dayplanners and postcards, while the policy platform gets depicted via a photo of a laptop computer screening PowerPoint, and “blog” entries are scrolled on the screen of a Blackberry – a device Bennett relied upon for rebuttal points relayed by her campaign manager during a January debate – reflecting the personality a politician who’s been successful at connecting to women whose most intimate mass media consumption occurs with a waiting room copy of Chatelaine. Not like Rae is doing himself much of a favour, as observed by blogger CalgaryGrit, by attaching himself to a slogan like “Call me Bob” – there’s just something about those three words reminiscent of a goofy c. 1990 disposition, suggesting that Rae oughta put his big round spectacles back on. Gerard Kennedy, who hasn’t forsaken the eyewear yet, could quite handily assert his potential to be Prime Minister by giving the impression that he’s got a modem at home.

Sam Bulte being routed out of office supplied the federal election with a local dollop of blogger triumphalism – although Michael Geist, who initiated the charges of influence peddling by media industry lobbyists seeking to stamp out file-sharing via Liberal Party legislation, concedes her loss would’ve been unlikely had the NDP not been represented on the ballot by a viable rival like Peggy Nash. (Compare this to American blogging blowhard Captain’s Quarters, hailed in stateside warblogging circles for single-handedly reversing the fortunes of Paul Martin.) The message sent by residents of the Parkdale-High Park riding motivated to boot Bulte from Parliament based on her position on copyright is that the state has no place in the hard drives of the nation. However, Star columnist Martin Knelman points to several haughtier initiatives – from the National Ballet School to the permanent Film Festival Centre to enhancing Canada Council coffers – that can be credited to the losing MP. But these ventures tend to exist in a different dimension from the tastes of those berated as “pro-user zealots” by Bulte; the internet pipeline will be drained of value if the audience is expected to pay a toll to sample so many online options. And while it’s uncertain just how much impact the Conservative minority will have on altering the domain of protectionist culture, the CRTC is soliciting comments on the future of commercial radio policy, leading up to a mid-May public hearing about whether 35-year-old CanCon rules are worth sustaining – a conversation that should belatedly belie ancient delusions that commercial FM radio is the engine of the music business. What’ll be left for the Canadian Recording Industry Association to blame? Well, a report in this week’s Billboard finds disc retailers across the country saying that diminished holiday sales were entirely the result of a lack of products popular enough to get people to buy anything.

Three weeks of feisty dissecting of the relationship between entertainment industry lobbyists and so-called piracy opponent Sam Bulte, MP for Parkdale-High Park, supplied new media enthusiasts with their very own stake upon which the Liberals are expected to fall. Compare that to the lack of blog buzz garnered by the mid-December effort by Angry in the Great White North blogger Steve Janke to smear the sibling of Belinda Stronach for his proprietorship of SheTips, which uses generic pin-up girls as conduits for online horse wagering. Looking for any hook to discredit she who betrayed Peter MacKay, the newly-neocon Maclean’s finally got around to covering the story in its pre-election issue, grasping for any lurid allegation that could stick to Andrew Stronach. The article attempts to make SheTips sound like a cross between a house of ill-repute, offshore money launderer and shameless besmircher of the Special Olympics – none of which would get even a passing glance if Newmarket-Aurora were a lock for the Conservatives. Not that the Canadian political scene couldn’t benefit from having its own billionaire hybrid of Ted Kennedy, Billy Carter and Roger Clinton, but this tale had no traction to start with. Less encouraging for those betting against Belinda would be Christina Blizzard handicapping in the Toronto Sun that Progressive Canadian candidate Dorian Baxter “could split the right-wing vote in this tight race”. Baxter, who is better known as Rev. Elvis Priestley, did receive more votes in 2004 than the margin separating Stronach from her Liberal then-opponent, and he continues to rail against MacKay’s sell-out to Stephen Harper’s agenda. Besides, for all the desperate measures recently taken to make a federal election seem remotely worthwhile to a population that’s always one click away from a more entertaining diversion, nobody has come up with a better gimmick than a pair of aviator shades, along with a gaudy jumpsuit and a couple of mutton chops.

The regular rigmarole regarding the relationship of young people to federal politics has returned, but the idea that a party or two could specifically attract those votes through becoming more radicalized never seems to enter the equation. At least the Communist Party have remained on message – even if their name won’t help them get beyond the farthest fringest of voter appeal, the current incarnation of the frontrunners started off with the acronym CCRAP, not to mention a legacy of more flawed rebrandings than a 21st century department store. Johan Boyden’s name is on the ballot in the Toronto Centre riding as its Communist envoy, taking over from Dan Goldstick – the philosophy professor who earned a grand total of 848 votes for running in most federal elections between 1974 and 2004. Goldstick is now acting as his 25-year-old protégé’s campaign manager, after Boyden made his first run as a candidate in Davenport last time around. The notoriously disparate Toronto Centre riding, which extends from Rosedale to Regent Park, has supplied him with a higher profile platform, even as MP Bill Graham has bolstered his electoral devotion during his run as Foreign Affairs Minister. Boyden has found plenty of outlets for his activism around the globe, but the opportunity to impact the system on home turf is one he relishes. A few questions and answers with Johan Boyden are below, and y’all can weigh in with comments afterward.

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Middlebrow bingocaller Peter Kent’s run for the Conservatives in the St. Paul’s riding has prompted one anonymous supporter to launch the Carolyn Bennett Watch, ridiculing the efforts of the physician MP to discredit her finely-coiffed rival. Last week, Kent mounted a Big Tent of supporters that included a few noted Liberal supporters. But a press release from Bennett pointed out that one of those names, Senator Jerry Grafstein, has four large Liberal signs on his lawn; and a former riding association member touted as a fresh defector to the Kent cause actually bailed out around the time of the last election. Bennett Watch reports on sightings of the incumbent ranting, pouting and frowning at various events in the vicinity of Forest Hill, plus an all-candidates debate where Bennett’s overdependence on a Blackberry for speaking cues from her campaign manager was exposed when its malfunctioning left her tongue-tied. Retailiating in recent days has been the even more anonymous Kent Watch, using an identical blog template, and being penned in the voice of "Peter’s Conscience". While not the greatest speller, this conscience can be found grappling with the clash between Kent’s stated views on same-sex marriage vs. Stephen Harper’s, having Kent’s campaign-boosting boss David Asper feign objectivity by not covering the erection of the Big Tent, and trading on celebrity status that’s arguably limited to ancient demographics.

Running for the NDP in Brampton-Springdale is 24-year-old Anna Mather, who’s gone directly from pursuing her degree, majoring in political science and sociology the University of Toronto – with detours to Oxford and studying the effects of NAFTA in Washington, D.C. – to her name on the ballot in the riding currently held by Ruby Dhalla. While the biggest election story from that corner of the GTA concerned a rash of vandalism directed at Dhalla’s lawn signs, the aftermath of gay marriage has galvanized the Conservative campaign of Sam Hundal in this riding with large Muslim and Sikh communities. Nonetheless, the candidacy of Mather offers a rare scenario of a young female challenger to a young female incumbent – something that’s still a novelty amidst the usual stodgy white guys shambling about the circuit. Mather also takes pride in her indie musical tastes (current favourites include Belle and Sebastian, The Arctic Monkeys and The Decemberists), which gives her insight into the current Sam Bulte copyright controversy. Through the miracle of weblog interactivity, follow-up questions or comments are welcome in the field below.

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A primer on the tumultuous campaign of Michael Ignatieff, running for the Liberals in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, catches Foreign Policy readers up to speed on the fortunes of their fellow wonk. And despite a $300-a-plate fundraiser regarded as a kickoff to the Harvard prof’s leadership effort, including bluster about how "troops, warriors and chieftans" are required in federal office, the campaign manager of Green opponent Philip Ridge benignly blogs about Ignatieff’s invisibility where it counts: "Go to your local coffee shop tomorrow," suggests Matt Day, "mention the word ‘Ignatieff’ loudly, and judge for yourself from what the response is." But is resentment toward his intellectualism really trickling down to the regulars at Coffee Time? The most vehement anti-Ignatieff campaign online comes from Vancouver blogger Simon Pole, charting a cynical course in regard to the candidate who’s been reported as looking especially petulant in his parka. And while Ignatieff hasn’t lived in Canada for 30 years, he evidently won’t stray outside Etobicoke-Lakeshore to debate on television, despite having no plans to ever actually reside in the riding. Overall, these reports on Ignatieff’s attitude risk being his undoing – he’s not the kind of guy you’d challenge to a snowball fight. So, if the reputation of Ignatieff as "pro-torture" is something that sticks through election day, his own masochism may be to blame.

Considering how most bloggers across the spectrum pride themselves on libertarian leanings, the political party dedicated to reducing the responsibilities and expense of government shouldn’t have a problem boosting their profile across the country. But for now, the Libertarians have only 11 folks running in B.C., Quebec and Ontario, including Scarborough-Rouge River candidate Alan Mercer. Mercer was born in Northern Ireland, earned a math degree at the University of Toronto, and has worked in the software industry for over a decade. It’s the second time in two months that he’s run for election in the riding with the highest immigrant population in Canada – Mercer was on the ballot for the provincial by-election in November. The riding’s current MP is Derek Lee, who’s been representing the area for five rounds since 1988. A freer society, freer markets and freer health care choices are all part of the Libertarian platform covered in their official FAQ. More of Mercer’s own insights are discussed below. Leave any of your comments or questions after that, and see where the discussion goes. (Suggestions of any other GTA candidates who seem worthy of this Q&A treatment are still welcome, too: pavedblog@gmail.com)

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If you’re not readily entitled in this country to watch MTV, or hear Howard Stern, or upload Coldplay CDs – even if you’re theoretically paying corporations for these privileges – shouldn’t the federal government be doing something about that? Given how regulation is constantly invoked as the culprit in determining what you can’t conveniently consume, every circuitous method of accessing what you want becomes political. But if being able to see and hear the most mainstream media involves an act of sedition, what hope do more eccentric forms of creativity have? These issues surround the re-election campaign of Parkdale-High Park MP Sam Bulte, whose $250 fundraiser at The Drake Hotel, supported by suits from the music, film, television, software and publishing industries, raised the topic of influence peddling amongst Liberals. (A series of editorial graphics have been crafted by Accordion Guy.) The latest to weigh in is music entrepreneur Neil Leyton, raising plenty of valid points, but failing to concede how Canadian artists have access to various levels of support mandated by the CRTC, including grants furnished by broadcasters. Yet, a system that allows an outstretched palm to request a piece of every ringtone, or dentist office soundtrack, or stack of blank CDs – all in the name of procuring compensation for lobbyist claims of internet-induced losses – is begging for an overhaul, if technology doesn’t kill it first. Bulte continues along the all-candidates circuit, leading up to her $$$erenade on January 19.

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