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I have to admit that when I first heard that Michael Chong was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) I thought: Oh, cute - a progressive conservative is running -- they'll squash him like a bug. I had an opportunity to hear Mr. Chong in person on Wednesday February 22 at an event hosted at the offices of OpenConcept (a business owned by long-time friend Michael Gifford).  There was about 30 guests there, and Mr. Chong's meet-and-greeting very quickly turned into a Q&A session. Most of what I heard I really liked.  Enough to decide to become a member of the party in order to vote in the leadership election in May (March 28 is the final date to become a member if you want to have your say).  I also made a $350 campaign contribution to Mr. Chong. I'll highlight three areas of policy he spoke about, the first being from that bulk of ideas I agreed with, then one area I am mostly with him but with some reservations, and one area I disagr...

One of the most critical discoveries that determined the form that  my business  and advocacy work would later take was the discovery of the  Free Software Foundation  and the GNU Project. While I do not have an exact date of when I joined the gnu.misc.discuss newsgroup, a  search on Google  indicates that my first posting was on Feb 11, 1992. The topic was:  Public Domain re-worked and re-released under GNU Public License? . It is interesting to go back and time and note that I have learned quite a bit about  software licenses  and  copyright law  since that time. I think my English and spelling have improved as well. (Re-post from 2003 article on Digital Copyright Canada . Most of my recent contributions have been to this blog)

A few partisan and multi-partisan groups including the NDP, Green Party (provincial and federal), and Fair Vote Canada have sent out announcements to their members about a "National Day of Action for Electoral Reform".  While I've been an active electoral reformer for many decades, I will be avoiding this event. Many of the reasons why were articulated in an earlier article on how Electoral Modernization is hard, but worth it .   It discussed how compromise and consideration of other viewpoints was critical to move forward. When Justin Trudeau and his election platform team  stated that , "We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system" they likely envisioned a specific campaign.  On one side would be those who wanted to keep the current First Past the Post (FPTP) system either because it benefit them or they were simply resistant to any change.   On the other side would be a broad ...