Score one for democracy, sort of.
It appears public outcry over the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s giving Internet service providers the ability to engage in usage-based billing was significant enough to stir the Prime Minister. The social-networking savvy Stephen Harper responded to the decision on Twitter, where he told his fellow Canadians that the government is very concerned about usage-based billing and its impact on consumers.
Soon after, the CRTC announces it will review the decision.
One can easily imagine (thanks to a recent Conservative advertising campaign) Stephen Harper seated in his leather chair, working diligently to protect Canadians from the threat of future G-20 summits, sipping cocoa out of his favourite Beatles mug, when a memo on the public backlash to the CRTC decision is handed to him. Barely able to refrain from spitting out a steaming mouthful of chocolaty goodness, the PM stands up and promises to no one in particular that Canadians will not suffer another meddling government body decision like the one that resulted in the 26-year-old Dire Straits song, Money for Nothing, being censored. Not on this prime minister’s watch.
Wasting no more time dallying with other national affairs such as the torture of Afghan detainees and the erosion of Canadians’ rights in the name of trade with the U.S., Harper, a man of action, grabs his Blackberry and tweets.
Coincidentally, after receiving 250 letters on the matter, the CRTC has asked the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council to review its ban of the original hit song. One can’t help but wonder if a text message from a certain piano-playing national leader may have helped.
Sure, these may be small battles, but they’re important to voting Canadians.
Thankfully, our prime minister is listening, or at least getting our messages, and is willing to work his texting thumbs hard in the name of democracy.
