ADataBaseIsNotADemocracyList-O-RamaLlamaDingDongVille
Remember this?
...."We want people to be aware of the involvement of NDP and Labour, and the consequences for their personal information," Hochstein said. "People who don't want their name to end up on a door knocking list for the next election only have one way to guarantee that doesn't happen - by refusing to sign the recall petition." Hochstein said with all the political change possible due to the leadership contests in the NDP and the BC Liberals, as well as the HST referendum, the recall campaigns are an expensive and pointless exercise.....
That was Phil Hochstein, the same guy who's (notso)Super-Pac thingy is now running the Adrian Dix super-smear so that the (not)Premier doesn't have to, way back in December of 2010 doing his best to suppress....errrr.... scare.... British Columbians into NOT signing the original HST-recall petition.
But.
I'm now starting to wonder if Mr. Hochstein wasn't also perhaps projecting the potential for list and database abuse based on his own experiences interacting with his ideological bretheren, who were already well-ensconsed in British Columbia by late Dec of 2010.
A counter point to this potential projection is the story of Inky Mark, the former Conservative MP who saw his team's use of its Dbase in the Server-Sky for what it truly is and decided to opt out.
OTTAWA - Inky Mark was always a bit of an outsider inside the Conservative caucus.
The former Manitoba MP, popular in his riding, wasn't interested in abiding by the party's message control and usually kept a low profile, sometimes not even attending caucus.
Mark now says he also opted out of the party's controversial voter identification system, or CIMS, out of similar concerns about the power the party wielded at the local level.
"If they get mad at you and don't want you to access your own data, you're done," Mark said.
"I figured that out right off the bat and said I don't want to be under their control, so I just quit basically."...
{snippety doo-dah}
....Mark says every time he or his staff would meet a constituent and get their phone number, they were expected to log the information and any pertinent details, including the individual's political leanings and personal interests.
He says the party had control over the entire, nationwide database. An MP and his staff were at the mercy of headquarters, Mark says, because they had the power to allocate and revoke database passwords....
****
Regardless all this stuff, I have a prediction.
And that is that the word 'password' will become a pretty big meme from Sea-To-Shining-Sea in the next week or so.
Particularly as it pertains to 'headquarters'.
OK?
.
4 comments:
Hi Ross
Mr Mark's personal morals appear to be a ray of hope that ethics and politics can exist in a Harper Conservative - or maybe he just has a better instinct for his own survival. Given all the negatives and potential abuse his personal actions are a promising credit to an honest future.
Can't say the same for Hochstein and (never ever to be elected Prem) Clark. History can only repeat itself with these two.
Bank robbers will continue to rob banks till they are finally caught- these two continue to lie etc. until they get the boot. Sooner than later but never soon enough.
Bill--
I really do wonder about the 'projection' aspect of what Mr. Hochstein had to say.
Because everybody assembles and data mines lists, including the Dippers.
I'm just not sure everybody uses the refined data to harass non-supporters.
.
Inky Mark was a small town mayor who joined the populist Reform party. Back in the day of Preston Manning's leadership, he had a shadow cabinet position for Canadian Heritage. We had to deal with him when presenting proposed legislation. Both he and Bloc's Suzanne Tremblay of the Bloc did their homework (or instructed their staff to brief them well). I remember being surprised that he did not act like so many of the other retrogrades in his party. He was soft spoken and considerate. When Harper took over, Mark was surprisingly relegated to the back benches - very surprising since he had proved himself to be a good Parliamentarian.
Anyway, for whatever reason, there was no love between Harper and Mark. Mark even publicly criticized Harper's attacks on the Canadian Wheat Board. Sadly, Harper had the national media muzzled so those critiques only got local media coverage. I'm glad he spoke out on this.
Thanks for the background BY.
Gives Mr. Marks comments even more credence in my books.
.
Post a Comment