Elections Canada Electoral district profile (Links to Map, Past Candidates, and Past Election Results)

Member of Parliament for Durham / Durham

Name: Hon. Bev Oda
e-Mail: <Oda.B@parl.gc.ca>
Party: Conservative Party of Canada
Gender: Female

Note: Database not yet current... working on it

Law professor Michael Geist has a Tag on his BLOG for articles about Heritage Minister Oda.

Toronto lawyer Rob Hyndman also has a tag on his BLOG for Ms. Oda.

MPs with positions relevant to copyright revision

This page is an attempt to identify the most relevant MPs from the perspective of copyright reform. If you are a constituent for one of these MPs, you can help ensure that they are well-educated on the issues.

Note: Page only updated for the Ministers. Parliamentary secretaries, and issue critics have not been named yet. The unknowns are marked as (U), listing the previous person holding the position.

Gordon Duggan at Appropriation Art has published a comic (PDF) about Canadian Copyright revision. It is a classic battle of good vs. evil of comic proportions where the "Evil Emissaries of American Interests try to suppress the Fantastic Freedom of Expression Fighters".

The cast of characters is somehow familiar.

Evil Emissaries (Or just misinformed?): Harper, Bush, Prentice, Henderson, McTeague, Wilkins, Feinstein / Cronyn, Schwarzenegger, Glickman, Frith, Oda

Fantastic Freedom Fighters: Angus, Doctorow, Geist, Knopf, Murray, Page, McOrmond

Prime Minister Harper presents new Ministry (See Press release). Changes include past Heritage Minister Bev Oda moving to Minister of International Cooperation, past Industry Minister Maxime Bernier moving to Minister of Foreign Affairs, with Honourable Josée Verner taking over Heritage and Honourable Jim Prentice taking over Industry.

The Globe and Mail has an interesting article by Campbell Clark speculating about the upcoming cabinet shuffle. The article talks about the female cabinet positions, and whether the PM will promote other women to replace Heritage Minister Bev Oda, viewed by many Tories as a weak communicator, and Revenue Minister, Carol Skelton, who has announced she will not run for re-election.

Will backbenchers Diane Ablonczy, Joy Smith or Lynne Yelich be brought into cabinet?

See also: G&M article by Val Ross.

According to Martin Knelman of the Toronto Star, Bev Oda being shuffled out of Heritage would not be mourned by the arts community.

An interesting dynamic was mentioned.

Still, if Harper shuffles Oda, it won't be because she has disappointed the arts world. He may opt for the political advantage of a French-speaking heritage minister, knowing culture gets votes in Quebec.

With two Quebec by-elections underway, would this be the best time for a shuffle? Would the Conservative candidates, if they won, make good Ministers?

According to the CTV there is a cabinet shuffle, government being prorogued, and a new Throne Speech when parliament returns. It is all speculation, and it includes suggestions that Ms. Oda would be shuffled. We might as well join the speculation: who do you think would make a good Conservative Heritage Minister, and who do you think would make an extremely bad one?

Michael Geist's weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star, MG's website) uses documents obtained under the Access to Information Act to provide a behind the scenes look at Canada's new movie piracy bill. The documents reveal that the bill is based largely on draft legislation directly provided by the industry and that the Minister of Canadian Heritage was advised by department officials that there was little evidence that the proposal would prove more effective than current Canadian law.

An article on the NDP website includes:

OTTAWA – New Democrats are asking the Heritage Minister to explain what appears to be a backdoor process to give Conservative MPs first dibs on a proposed summer arts program. Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) has obtained a memorandum from the minister’s office that is inviting Conservative MPs to come forward with ideas on how to spend a $30 million program slated for summer festivals. No criteria, applications or timelines have been posted by the Heritage Department with regards to this multi-million dollar fund.

(Also carried by p2pnet)
There have been a number of ideas that have been bumping around my head the past few weeks that need to be pushed out onto this BLOG after listening to This Week in Tech Episode #92. The episode was about user generated content, which included the Vancouver based hosts of the Tiki Bar. What they were talking about reminded me of my recent meeting with the Honourable Hedy Fry, the Member of Parliament for Vancouver Center.