Bulte Loses; Did the Blogs Help?
In a tight race, Liberal MP Sam Bulte lost her seat in the House of Parliament to Peggy Nash. You have to wonder how much of an impact the blogosphere had given the big election issue in her riding - copyright reform and Bulte's tight relationship with the music, film, software and publishing leaders industry - emerged because of work done by bloggers such as Michael Geist. While voters in other parts of the country focused on health care and the economy, people in Bulte's riding were suddenly questioning the copyright reform process. Of course, Bulte's might have also lost because voters simply wanted change but you can't discount the role bloggers played. One episode that perhaps demonstrated the blogosphere's influence was the focus on Bulte's decision to participate in a $250-a-plate fundraiser organized by music, software, film and publishing leaders. The optics of holding it four days before the election were terrible and it was exacerbated by how bloggers went to town on it. With Bulte now out of work, it will be interesting to see if she follows through on her threat to sue Geist.
For other views on Bulte's defeat, check out Geist, Boing Boing, Accordion Guy and Tech Dirt. The Toronto Star has comments from Bulte and Nash. (Hat tip to Rob Hyndman for doing the early-morning leg work on the links!)
January 24th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
The furor in the blogosphere absolutely contributed here, but not in the way that many of the “information wants to be free” types might hope. What it did was unearth the lousy decision Bulte made in going along with the idea of the fundraiser, which called her judgment into question and got real-live voters real-live talking about it. How much of an impact? Only pollsters would be able to answer that one, and I'm not intending to pay them to find out. But yup, I can tell you that when I spoke with people about the fundraiser (I live in her riding) they were “What? Are you serious? How stupid is that?” And I only knew about it because it was getting heavy bloggerage, and said heavy bloggerage begot mainstream coverage. But all that said, fact is, regardless of her position on copyright, if she hadn't made the bad call of saying Yes to the fundraiser, she might still be an MP. The blogosphere surfaced it, but the problem was of her own making.
– Stuart
January 24th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
until the blogosphere started talking about bulte's fundraising plans, i hadn't paid too much attention to copyright reform. now, i'm getting in to it so there's one positive
January 24th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
I live in Bulte's riding (now ex-riding) and was canvassed by a Liberal last Thursday. When I yelled at him about her role in Bill C-60, he knew what I was talking about and gave the party line about how it's good for artists. He didn't seem the least bit surprised by my outburst, which suggests that I'm far from the only voter in the riding concerned about the issue. So I suspect that the blogosphere did have an impact. Some of it would be indirect, however, because the story was picked up by various print media widely read by people here.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Mark: While I think blogs are great, I think it is mainly the converted speaking to the converted. Bulte didn't lose because of blogs — she lost because of the problems facing the Liberals and Toronto's silver spoon socialist mentality. To give Michael Geist credit for this is going a touch too far — he's only looking for where he can get his name into print every day (Monday, Toronto Star. Check. Tuesday. National Post. Check. Wednesday. Ottawa Citizen. Check….).
Canada's copyright legislation needs to be reformed. But if it is, then what is Michael Geist going to talk to the media about? Ecommerce?
That said, C-60 has some serious issues relating to copyright and the media, so hopefully the Conservatives can work that out and push this forward. I'm not fond of thinking of Canada as some version of China when it comes to intellectual property.
-Robert