Friday, June 09, 2006

Entertainment cos. funded Canadian heritage minister

It seems that when it became clear that the campaign against previous Canadian MP, Sam Bulte, might be successful, the entertainment companies funding her election campaign quietly siphoned significant funds to then opposition candidates. One of the beneficiaries of this was Bev Oda, the new Canadian Heritage Minister

"Conservative Party Heritage Minister Bev Oda, became the focus of the entertainment industry's funding efforts as it became clear that Bulte would not be re-elected (Bulte went crazy when her election prospects weakened, screaming in all-candidates meetings about not being "intimidated by user-rights zealots and EFF members").

Unlike the US, Canada does not have a tradition of corporate funding of Parliamentary campaigns. Indeed, Michael Geist got many of the candidates in the last election to sign onto a pledge not to take campaign funding from industries that they are likely to end up overseeing once in office. This only makes sense -- if you're taking a government paycheck to represent the public interest by overseeing an industry, that industry shouldn't be lining your pockets.

Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda did not take the pledge."

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