With the news that George Takach has dropped out of the Liberal leadership race, there is no longer a candidate who puts digital issues in such a position of prominence in their campaign. The end of his campaign was news that was appropriately released on Twitter:<\/p>\n
I am ending my #lpcldr<\/a> campaign + supporting @justintrudeau<\/a> to make Canada work better #cdnpoli<\/a> bit.ly\/jt-gt-en<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 George Takach (@georgetakach) February 25, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And with that, we will need to see who will take on the title of “digital candidate”. Mr. Takach had tried to recruit support from the gamer community, creating Geeks4George<\/a>, to take advantage of the Liberal Party’s new “supporter<\/a>” category of voters that doesn’t require full membership. As Warren Kinsella recently wrote<\/a>, it is a category of leadership voters that appears ripe for gaming the system.<\/p>\n
Who will provide the most serious voice for digital economy issues? Marc Garneau<\/a> has been the Industry critic for the Liberals and has therefore owned party responsibility for the digital file. As I wrote before<\/a>, from the beginning, Mr. Garneau has promised “As leader, I will place a relentless focus on the development of a balanced, creative, knowledge-based economy.”<\/p>\n