It seems that the Canadian Conservatives have decided that it is best that they actually tell voters that they will make unpopular laws before they get elected.
Over the pond, the Canadian Conservative party's campaign promises to pass a massive "crime and justice" bill within 100 days, if re-elected.
According to Michael Geist's bog the bill, which will not have any hearings or public consultation before it is enacted, would allow for bulk surveillance over Canadians' use of the internet.
The bill will force the ISPs to disclose internet provider customer information without court oversight.
The ISPs will have to redesign their networks to allow for real-time surveillance so that the government knows exactly what is going on as you do it.
Apparently it is crucial that the government has the power to intercept communications, to isolate the communications to a particular individual, and to engage in multiple simultaneous interceptions.
Coppers would not need to go to court to get an order to snoop on people either.
All fairly Big Brotherish and we would have thought so grim that the party suggesting them would never get elected.
However, it might be that the Conservatives are capitalising on a fear of crime which appears to be sweeping the country.
What might be more alarming is that Canada's Liberals might be also hoping to come up with a Big Brother package of their own.
None of this is to say the Liberals would be any better. They introduced their own lawful access package many years ago but access ideas have not been mapped out.
The difference is that the Conservatives have included fast tracking lawful access in their platform.
What we do have is a Tory minority PM (Steven Harper) making his third (or fourth?) try for a majority. He is playing up the crime "issue" to curry favour with the far right voters.
livecurrent.blogspot.com
The other parties have released their ideas about internet security and privacy and are actually pretty decent in comparison. The Conservatives are the outlier here in their bid to rapidly expand the surveillance capacity of the state, as part of the corporate favouring of the new tightly interconnected network of security firms and military contractors at the heart of the new power elites in the country. A very Canadian coup indeed.
Now Big Business pays 4% of Canada's tax budget/burden. The People pay 96%
We don't have a democracy at all. We have a Capitalist Democracy and Capitalism grows stronger.
This is how all of our social programs have fallen.
Wake up Canada, both Liberals & Democrats have provided the wealthiest 10% of Canadians incredible income growth and Business tax cuts. The middle-class & poor have seen little income growth at all while public taxes have sky-rocketed since 1950. OH CANADA, at least we got the 1st 2 words of the National Anthem right..(Stats Can-2004/MacLeans Mag.1972)
Why Vote? You should ask that of your party members before you do.