LET’S KEEP A GEEK ON PARLIAMENT HILL
Joseph Potvin
jpotvin@opman.ca | Direct: 819-593-5983 | Shared CC-by
Currently there is one elected Member of the Canadian Parliament who has first-hand technical sys-admin, programming and free/libre/open knowledge. That's MP David Graham.
MP David Graham,
in his office on Parliament Hill. | Let's begin with a detail. Visiting his House of Commons office in early May 2018 I noticed source code on his desktop monitor, instead of civil code, just above a geek memento from his time living in Ontario. He said that just now he had been writing a little script through PuTTY to automate the tally of Parliamentary vote results for use in a spreadsheet. I asked him for a screen-shot for the short piece I'd like to write. A legislator who can write computer programming code is interesting to me because my professional work involves enabling digitally automated agreements, for simplifying cross-border trade, collective labour and smart contracts. When every condition, deduction, entitlement and notification in a law or regulation would be expressed in a transparent computable form and be discoverable online, it's great to find a Parliamentarian who can read and write in various programming languages, in addition to Canada's two official natural languages. |
He has also been an editor on DevChannel.org, freshmeat.net, Newsforge.com and Linux.com from the Andover.net to Sourceforge days, and he served 8 years on the Board of Directors of Software in the Public Interest.
David Graham's riding is Laurentides—Labelle in Quebec. It has about 100,000 people spread across almost 20,000 km2, which is an area almost as large as the entire country of Slovenia. To make it in federal politics, this small town guy has to think big. Here are some of his statements in the House of Commons on few of Canada's biggest informatics issues:
Information technologists tend to also be keeners on transportation themes. David is more than an advocate. He's one of very few sitting MPs with an active pilot's license (that's sometimes how he gets around Laurentides—Labelle), and as a hobby he maintains an indexed and meticulously documented collection of more than 80,000 railway photos across four continents at http://railfan.ca/. A decade ago, while he was living in Guelph, the Guelph Mercury newspaper included David in their "Top 40 Under 40" for his work in public transit. He is able to bring tangible knowledge to his interventions relating to aviation, passenger and freight rail and public safety.
I wish to emphasize that the present promo is written purely on an autonomous voluntary basis. Both personally and professionally, I am non-partisan. David Graham is with the Liberal Party. So I'd like to also highlight that Conservative MP Michael Chong is knowledgeable in these domains, having previously worked in information technology in the banking, investment and transportation sectors. And both NDP MP Charlie Angus and the Green Party of Canada are well-informed and have made very welcome efforts favouring free/libre/open source principles for source code and data.
What's different about David Graham is that he's an MP with substantive and direct technical computing know-how at a level previously unavailable in Parliament.
If you think, as I do, that it's strategically important for at least one elected member of Canada's Parliament, from any party, to have the capability to bring primary technical knowledge to bear in legislative and policy deliberations relating to information technology, then I suggest that independently of your party preferences, please consider doing either or both of the following:
1. You can help to boost David's national-level profile by writing and publishing about, or encouraging others to write and publish about the significance of having in Parliament this particular Honorable Member who genuinely understands technical informatics and free/libre principles. There's a need for more exposure like this article about David's work on equality of access to the Internet, and this Linux Magazine blog post on his raising awareness of free/libre/open way in the Canadian Government, and this little Slashdot post. It strengthens David's reputation in his own riding if his constituents see that he is well-respected throughout the country, particularly in the high-tech domain. The stronger his national profile on strategic matters for Canada as a whole, the easier it is for him to also advance issues particular to his home riding.
2. David has a re-election campaign to fund. For any incumbent to remain as the Liberal candidate through the 2019 election, the party has identified thresholds that each candidate has to meet within a short period of time. He is working hard to achieve these thresholds before July of this year. The most important of these is that he must have half of the predicted spending cap for the election secured before being allowed to apply for nomination. So, notwithstanding your broader party preferences and geographical location in the country, if you want to help keep at least one person in Parliament who can speak to free/libre principles in computing, open source methods, the reasons digital restrictions are harmful, why net neutrality is in the public interest, and how to enable equitable Internet and cell phone access in Canada's rural regions, you can make a one-time contribution to his riding association here:
https://secure.liberal.ca/eda/?eda=24038 (Laurentides--Labelle riding), or you can snail-mail a personal cheque (for a maximum $1,575) to: Laurentides--Labelle Federal Liberal Association, 1494 ch du 6e Rang, Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, QC J0T 2J0.
Please pass this along to others who you think would be interested.
Thank you.
Joseph Potvin
