Liberally digital

The Liberal Party’s 2013 leadership race may provide an opportunity for digital economy issues to be advanced by politicians of all stripes.

So far, the declared candidates have provided little in the way of detailed platform, but hints of priorities are emerging on their websites:

Marc Garneau has an explicit statement: “As leader, I will place a relentless focus on the development of a balanced, creative, knowledge-based economy.” We will be looking for more details as the campaign moves forward.

Although Deborah Coyne has a header on her policy page for “Building a Solid Economic Foundation: Prosperity through Creativity and Innovation”, the closest reference to the subject appears to be the establishment of yet another blue-ribbon commission. As I have written before, we already have a government that is great at launching studies; we don’t seem to be as good acting on the recommendations.

George Takach announced his candidacy at the MaRS discovery District this morning, a choice of venue that makes a statement itself. The Canadian Press is already calling him the e-candidate, with a plan to engage with gamers to crowd-source a digital bill-of-rights, the first elements of which are on his website. His economic policies speak of plans to introduce a new Digital Economy strategy – among other points of relevance to a digital issues: Embracing technological innovation; Investing in high-tech infrastructure; Introducing a new Digital Economy strategy; Overhauling Canada’s R&D approach.

George Takach believes there are other important “digital” issues that also must be addressed, including ensuring that all Canadians have high-speed access to the Internet – regardless of where they live – so they can take better advantage of the full potential of both the Internet and the Information Age and ensuring a balanced approach to digital intellectual property.

While it is encouraging to see digital issues take centre stage from a leadership candidate, the Takach campaign continues to talk in terms of a rural digital divide without addressing the issue of affordability. 

I would still like to see Canada create a program to ensure that all households with children have affordable access to a connected home computer.

I was unable to find any policy statements on the Justin Trudeau leadership website.

Whether you are a Liberal or not, the policy statements set out in this leadership campaign can influence the future platform and policy agendas for all parties.

To what extent will digital issues capture the hearts of Canadians?