Author: Stephen Taylor

My friend Amanda Achtman in Alberta brought some friends together to assemble this creative video that describes the frustration of many Albertans have with the Natural Governing Party of Alberta, the Alberta Progressive Conservatives.

The song riffs on Gotye’s hit from last summer, Somebody That I Used To Know and the video was produced by Olivier Ballou through donations from young Alberta conservatives.

Lyrics:

Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could try
Told myself that you were right for me
Felt progressive in your company
But that was then and after 40 years I still remember

But you didn’t have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don’t even need you now
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No you didn’t have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your perks and then start to slumber
I guess that I don’t need that though
Now you’re just some party that I used to know

Now you’re just some party that I used to know
Now you’re just some party that I used to know

Today, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg launched his political action committee called FWD.us to rally tech business leaders to reform American immigration law.

Zuckerberg is joined by executives at Dropbox, Paypal, Airbnb, Netflix, LinkedIn and Yahoo. These tech leaders believe the United States is failing to address its innovation gap by allowing the immigration system to languish. Indeed, the United States is a magnet for the type of highly skilled workers needed by Silicon Valley. FWD.us is lobbying the US government to both secure the country’s borders and to streamline the process for admitting skilled workers for the tech sector.

On traditional immigration challenges, FWD.us is also looking to the government to provide a pathway to citizenship initiative for giving status to illegal immigrants.

The FWD.us website is built on the NationBuilder platform and integrates Facebook API tools for tracking and communitizing its supporters.

What do you think of the initiative? Is this a logical move for the US tech sector? Should Zuckerberg be getting more or less involved in politics?

From today’s Toronto Star,

Opposition parties are backing a push from Ontario’s chief electoral officer for limits on advertising by interest groups such as the anti-Tory Working Families coalition of unions.
 
Noting that such “third-party” advertising tripled to $6.7 million between the 2007 and 2011 provincial elections, Greg Essensa said in his annual report that the legislature needs to set up an independent body to study a cap on spending and contributions, among other things.
 
“We would like to see stronger parameters around third party advertising,” Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod said Monday, echoing calls from party leader Tim Hudak last year.

The Ontario PCs should not be looking at reining in free speech just because they are losing the free speech fight. To be sure, unions need better disclosure of how they are spending worker dues especially if those dues are going to political causes. Unions should also be made to allow a mechanism to allow members to opt out of their dues should this money be going towards causes any particular member does not support.

The National Citizens Coalition raises money given voluntarily by thousands of Ontarians to advocate on their issues. If political parties are the only ones given the right of free and unfettered speech during elections, this makes our society less democratic.

Do not abandon your principles, Mr. Hudak. We need more ideas during elections, not fewer.