Our analysis of the different party platforms is complete and we can offer a quick rundown of each Canadian party platform.
Back during the 2019 election, we reviewed the major parties and compiled a comparison of all the platforms through the lens of digital rights. Then, in 2021, we did the exact same thing. Now, as you can tell by some of our writing, we did the exact same this year and have compiled everything that we were able to gather to produce something that you can refer to for this election.
Of course, you might be wondering why this is so late. After all, advanced voting is over and the main election is just around the corner, so what was the holdup? Simply put, the answer was the platforms of the Conservative party and the NDP. On the last day of advanced voting, the Conservative party finally released their platform, the second to last party to do so. That just left the NDP. We waited… and waited… and waited… and have finally decided to just cut our losses and consider the NDP as a party to have not bothered releasing a platform. Sure, they have commitments, but no formal platform like the other parties.
This year, we did go ahead and checked out another fringe party just for giggles. So, we checked out the Canada Future Party – a party that makes the People’s Party of Canada seem like a mainstream party (they’re not). If you are curious what we did for a lark, there, you can check out the above link, but we decided to not bother including it in the main formal roundup.
Much like the previous election, every actual political party failed to produce a platform that was reasonable enough for digital rights. It seems to carry on the tradition of not caring about digital rights at all or be shown a few scraps of thought. Even as Canada faces enormous challenges in this area (challenges that need immediate attention), it seems that the area of technology and digital rights still isn’t registering for the main political parties. Even as our daily lives are completely surrounded, Canada’s political parties still look at these issues with a sort of “deer in headlights” look. In fact, you would be forgiven for thinking that Canada’s political parties don’t know what “the internets” are or haven’t even heard of a “cell phone”. It’s disappointing, but collective ignorance continues to be a major theme in the political class as the world continues to leave them further and further behind.
Still, there was one particular platform that did actually pass. That was the platform from Open Media which, once again, earns top marks for their efforts. So, here is what we found from the one that did manage to pass.
Open Media
The Good
- Supports securing the Canadian internet
- Supports affordable high speed internet for all
- Supports privacy reform
- Supports defending encryption
- Supports cracking down on surveillance advertising
- Supports an independent press
- Supports cracking down on the shady business of data brokers
- Supports the repeal of the Online News Act
- Supports good reforms of the CBC including open licensing of CBC content and making CBC ad free
- Calls for consultations on how best to regulate AI
- Supports investments in community broadband networks
- Opposes Internet censorship
- Supports striking a balance between taking down illegal content while respecting freedom of expression
- Supports open technical standards
- Supports public consultations for internet regulations
- Supports protections against SLAPP lawsuits
- Positive Canada first copyright reform
- Ending app store price gouging
- Pushing copyright terms back to 25 years plus the like of the author
- Strengthening right to repair laws to include access to repair parts and manuals
Mixed
- Supports the Digital Services Tax (not entirely sure how salvageable that is under the current climate, though how they propose to go about it does sound like a good idea.)
The Bad
(I didn’t see anything that strikes me as a bad idea)
Overall rating: A+
Ultimately, Open Media is showing the other political parties how it is done. In fact, it would have been nice if even a fraction of these ideas were stolen by other political parties. The problem is that they didn’t. So, we ended up seeing a bunch of political parties that have completely and utterly failed. The real question is, which party failed the least? Below is the order from failing the least to failing the most.
The Green Party
The Good
- Supports strengthening privacy laws through privacy reform (they don’t say privacy reform specifically for some reason)
- Supports strengthening right to repair laws
- Supports broadband access to rural and indigenous communities
- Increase affordability for cellular and internet services while cracking down on misleading contracts from providers
- Reduction of e-waste and requiring transparency for manufacturers to not only document how technology can be repaired, but also requiring manufacturers to supply replacement parts
The Mixed
- Modernizing what “Cancon” actually is (they don’t say it it’s in support of Canadians in general or if they mean tightening the definitions to protect the media establishment
- Creation of a government apparatus to regulate speech online (can be weaponized by parties who don’t like you if you think that’s a good thing)
The Bad
- Supports Internet censorship of Canadians through the Online Streaming Act (they mislabelled it as “Bill C-10”)
- Redefining platforms as publishers which will drive the platforms out of the country, causing significant harm to Canada in the process
- No plan on helping digital first creators that are currently driving economic growth in the online space
- No plan to break up advertising monopolies of tech giants
- No plan to increase competition in the cellular and internet space
- No plan to crack down on scam calls
- No plan to fix the Online Streaming Act
- No plan to fix/abolish the Online News Act
- No plan to fix the problem of the Digital Services Tax
- No plan to combat digital frisking at the border (US border patrol demanding passwords to devices, etc.)
Overall rating: F
The Conservative Party
The Good
- Repealing the Online News Act
- Possibly repealing the Online Streaming Act
- Increasing broadband to rural and indigenous communities
The Mixed
- Stopping telephone scams for seniors (placed here because why not just try and stop scams for all Canadian’s instead of just protecting one specific demographic?)
- Ending government advertising that reaches the most Canadians
The Bad
- Supports mass surveillance of Canadians and hiding it behind a “protect the children” mantra (the platform also offers the contradiction that it would oppose this, but the parties history and the previous promise holds more weight here)
- Controlling speech on campuses ironically in the name of free speech on campus
- Defunding the CBC for obvious political gain and narrative control
- No plan to reform Canadian privacy laws
- No plan on helping digital first creators that are currently driving economic growth in the online space
- No plan to break up advertising monopolies of tech giants
- No plan to tackle abusive market practices of various carriers
- No plan to modernize the definitions of Cancon
- No plan to fix the problem of the Digital Services Tax
- No plan to combat digital frisking at the border (US border patrol demanding passwords to devices, etc.)
Overall Rating: F
The Bloc Quebecois
The Good
- Supports privacy reform
- Supports right to repair
- Supports the expansion of cell phone coverage
The Mixed
- More regulatory oversight of AI (such a call can go either way)
The Bad
- Seemingly wants to go further with either the terrible Online News Act, the Online Streaming Act, or both
- Reform fair dealing to possibly exclude AI from protections (it’s legal nonsense)
- No plan to expand broadband to rural and indigenous communities
- No plan on helping digital first creators that are currently driving economic growth in the online space
- No plan to break up advertising monopolies of tech giants
- No plan to tackle abusive market practices of various carriers
- No plan to increase competition in the cellular and internet space
- No plan to crack down on scam calls
- No plan to modernize the definitions of Cancon
- No plan to fix the problem of the Digital Services Tax
- No plan to combat digital frisking at the border (US border patrol demanding passwords to devices, etc.)
- (commentators also noted the support for Canada’s Age Verification legislation. Credit to them for catching that.)
Overall Rating: F
The Liberal Party
The Good
- Offering more money towards startups
The Mixed
- Fighting non-consensual imagery (mishandled in the past by shoehorning really bad policies. No details on how to accomplish this.
- Focusing largely on AI as if it’s a magic bullet solution for everything (it is not)
- Pouring money into cultural organizations for redistribution (typically, these funds largely go to large conglomerates and already profitable organizations. Without significant reform with these organizations, it will do nothing to bolster culture.)
- Combating online exploitation (again, no details on how to accomplish this and this effort is usually used to shoehorn terrible policy ideas.)
The Bad
- No plan to reform Canadian privacy laws
- No plan to expand broadband to rural and indigenous communities
- No plan on helping digital first creators that are currently driving economic growth in the online space
- No plan to break up advertising monopolies of tech giants
- No plan to tackle abusive market practices of various carriers
- No plan to increase competition in the cellular and internet space
- No plan to bring back the so-called “Digital Charter”
- Doubling down on the controversial CETA trade agreement
- No plan to crack down on scam calls
- No plan to modernize the definitions of Cancon
- No plan to fix the Online Streaming Act
- No plan to fix/abolish the Online News Act
- No plan to fix the problem of the Digital Services Tax
- No plan to combat digital frisking at the border (US border patrol demanding passwords to devices, etc.)
Overall Rating: F-
The People’s Party of Canada
The Good
- Call to repeal the Online Streaming Act
The Mixed
- Fighting legislation that challenges freedom of expression (the point was so vague, it could mean anything)
The Bad
- Promoting the policing of thought crimes that disagree with their political ideology
- Rolling back protections for various cultural and social groups, leaving them more vulnerable to attacks for their speech
- No plan to reform Canadian privacy laws
- No plan to expand broadband to rural and indigenous communities
- No plan on helping digital first creators that are currently driving economic growth in the online space
- No plan to break up advertising monopolies of tech giants
- No plan to tackle abusive market practices of various carriers
- No plan to increase competition in the cellular and internet space
- No plan to crack down on scam calls
- No plan to modernize the definitions of Cancon
- No plan to fix/abolish the Online News Act
- No plan to fix the problem of the Digital Services Tax
- No plan to combat digital frisking at the border (US border patrol demanding passwords to devices, etc.)
Overall Rating: Kill it with fire
The NDP
(No formal platform released to date. No analysis done as a result.)
Overall Rating: Not complete
There you have it! Our third election of doing an actual political party platform roundup! Not the results we were hoping for, but definitely the results we got. We hope you found some of this insightful at least since no one else out there is seemingly doing this sort of work. Now, we wait for the election results so we can assess the damage afterwards.
