A reading list for free market telecom policy

Congratulations to Pierre Poilievre, the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.

Over the past few years, I have been somewhat critical of some telecom policy position papers to emerge from the Conservative party. Truth be told, I have been critical of a lot of telecom policy… full stop.

Let’s face it, Canadian telecommunications policy hasn’t won a lot of fans among consumers, or among service providers for that matter. Yet here we are, continuing to pursue the same approach, with spectrum set-asides and using number of competitors as a lazy substitute to measure competitive intensity.

But, with a new leader of the opposition, a “champion of free markets”, it just might be an opportunity for a fresh look at developing a “free market telecom policy”, as a key enabler of Canada’s digital economy.

So, in the spirit of the start of a new school year, let’s review our initial reading list, kicking off our graduate-level course in Free Market Canadian Telecom Policy.

There you go.

That should be a good start for some background reading on a more free market approach to Canadian telecom policy. I’m happy to hear if there are others to be added.

Be ready for a pop-quiz in the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing proposed topics for your term papers. And don’t forget – class participation represents a significant piece of your final grade.

3 thoughts on “A reading list for free market telecom policy”

  1. I’m kind of partial to the 2006 Report of the Telecom Policy Review Panel.

    I congratulate you on your good judgement in not recommending the 2020 Report of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review.

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