Free software advocate finishes third in Canadian election (NewsForge) [LWN.net]

NewsForge looks at free software advocacy and the Canadian election. "Mathieu Allard, the free software advocate who ran for the New Democrats in the riding of Saint Boniface, Manitoba, finished third in the Canadian national election on January 23. Since he was not elected, he is returning to his job as executive assistant to Christine Melnick, the Minister of Housing and Social Services in the Manitoba provincial government. He plans to look for new ways to promote the use of free software in government."

to post comments

Free software advocate finishes third in Canadian election (NewsForge)

Posted Jan 27, 2006 19:26 UTC (Fri) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (2 responses)

Third out of five sounds good, until you realize the Greens and the CHP are still fringe parties. So the headline more accurately reads "Of the major-party candidates, the free software advocate came last."

Free software advocate finishes third in Canadian election (NewsForge)

Posted Jan 28, 2006 0:48 UTC (Sat) by barbara (guest, #3014) [Link] (1 responses)

I prefer the positive way the headline reads rather than your negative way
of stating things. Mr. Allard did finish third and increased his total
vote count from 6,954 votes in 2004 to 9,311 votes in 2006. Also, he
plans to continue his free software advocacy in government circles, which
is a Good Thing (tm).

Free software advocate finishes third in Canadian election (NewsForge)

Posted Jan 28, 2006 3:25 UTC (Sat) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

... except I doubt that his support for free software had anything to do with it. More like backlash against the Liberals.

(I disagree with enough of the NDP's platform that I'd vote against them regardless of their stance on free software.)

Where did the enslaved software advocate finish?

Posted Jan 28, 2006 9:00 UTC (Sat) by leonbrooks (guest, #1494) [Link] (1 responses)

Enquiring minds (officially Canadian, at the moment, although living in Oz and posting from Noo Zullund) want to know.

Where did the enslaved software advocate finish?

Posted Jan 28, 2006 17:01 UTC (Sat) by stfn (guest, #30357) [Link]

I don't know about the other candidates in Saint Boniface, but the anti-user rights shill who shamelessly parroted pro-WIPO treaty and restrictive copyright reform lobbyists while claiming to think and speak for herself finished second in Parkdale--High Park. It was widely reported by people who follow these issues in Canada ( Geist , digital-copyright.ca , onlinerights.ca , BoingBoing ).