Digital Copyright Canada

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

Member of Parliament for Pickering-Scarborough East / Pickering - Scarborough-Est

Name: Hon. Dan McTeague
e-Mail: <McTeague.D@parl.gc.ca>
Party: Liberal Party of Canada

Liberal MP Marc Garneau (Westmount—Ville-Marie, critic for Industry, Science & Technology), has participated in a Q&A with SaveOutNet.ca. While the responses are interesting, I would like to compare with what would be said by Dan McTeague (Pickering—Scarborough East, critic for Consular Affairs, Consumer Affairs) who has expressed quite different opinions on digital strategy issues. I wouldn't be surprised to hear McTeague supporting both 3-strikes and the Google Tax.

The CBC article Marketers want anti-spam bill altered contains an interesting notes from the Liberal critic of consumers:

Liberal consumer affairs critic Dan McTeague told CBCNews he doesn't know what the position of his party is, but that he personally supports the Conservative bill, "warts and all."

Today is the last day make your written submissions in the 2009 copyright consultation, but this does not mean the process is over. In fact, we should be winding up towards the next stage in the process and not winding down.

There are two sets of things that will be happening next: analysis of submissions, and then moving this into the political process. Nik Nanos will be summarizing the comments to the 5 topic areas, and the bureaucracy will be doing their analysis of the written submissions. We need to do our own analysis.

There may soon be a federal election. Whether there is or not, we need to work within each riding to ensure that as many members of parliament will be as informed as possible when a bill is tabled and there is committee and house debate on the bill. It matters who these individual people will be, and less what party they are affiliated with. To this end I have just donated $500 to the campaign of author, broadcaster, editor, journalist, musician, negotiator, singer, and Timmins--James Bay MP Charlie Angus.

>> Read full article on IT World Canada's blog

I had to laugh at one part of a CBC news article by Peter Nowak which included the following:

Critics, including Liberal MP Dan McTeague, said the government was guilty of caving in to lobbying by the industry.

This is the same Dan McTeague who has participated along with industry lobbiests in one-sided "Copyright" conferences. He towes the industry line to the level that he might as well be considered part of the industry lobby.

• James Rajotte (Edmonton—Leduc, Conservative, chair) re-elected
  
• Paule Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, Bloc, co-chair) re-elected
  
• Dan McTeague (Pickering—Scarborough East, Liberal, co-chair) re-elected
  
• André Arthur (Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, Independent) re-elected
  
• Scott Brison (Kings—Hants, Liberal) re-elected
  
• Colin Carrie (Oshawa, Conservative) re-elected
  
• Mark Eyking (Sydney—Victoria, Liberal) re-elected
  
• Peggy Nash (Parkdale—High Park, NDP) lost to Liberal Gerard Kennedy
  
• Raymond Simard (Saint Boniface, Liberal) lost to Conservative James Bezan
  
• Bruce Stanton (Simcoe North, Conservative) re-elected
  
• Dave Van Kesteren (Chatham-Kent—Essex, Conservative) re-elected
  
• Robert Vincent (Shefford, Bloc) re-elected
  

Here is a list of the top ridings I'll be watching this election night, and why. Click on the ridings to get more details, articles, etc.

Timmins--James Bay

Obvious place to start the list, with incumbent Charlie Angus of the New Democrats expected to keep his seat. He is the incumbent MP who best understands technology law issues, whether it be Copyright or Net Neutrality. He has also been very successful in educating and working within his caucus to enable the NDP to have some of the strongest candidates in this election.

P2pnet editor Jon Newton has decided to come out in support of a specific party, namely the NDP, as the party people should support if the issues we cover on p2pnet are important to you. While I agree with some of the specific candidates he mentions, such as Timmins–James Bay candidate and NDP digital spokesperson Charlie Angus, and Vancouver Centre candidate Michael Byers, I believe it’s the candidates we need to concentrate on, and not the parties.

Read full article on p2pnet.

A Reuters article has an intereting quote.

The Opposition Liberal party slammed the legislation as a half-baked measure that neglected consulting all sides.

"How are you going to enforce this when existing jurisprudence doesn't allow you to walk into someone's home?" asked Liberal Dan McTeague.

I think it is harmful for the Liberals to have their most out-of-touch MP being thought of as their spokesperson on this issue. He title may be "Consumer affairs critic", but he seems to spend most of his time being critical of the legitimate affairs of consumers.

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