The Unknown Studio

In this week’s episode, Scott and I sat down with Dave Cournoyer and Duncan Wojtaszek to discuss “the deal” with Canadian politics. What is it that keeps voters away from the polls? Why is there such a disconnect between voters and politicians?

Is there any hope for the electoral and governance systems in Alberta and Canada?

In short: yes.

I think we may have even gotten a few words in there about Star Trek, as part of my nefarious plot: to make this podcast about Star Trek at all costs.

Send us your comments, questions and show suggestions. And enjoy the episode!

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I was unfortunately unable to attend Pecha Kucha Night 5 last night at the Horowitz Theatre on the U of A campus. However, by all accounts, it was a tremendous event. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dave Cournoyer and I had beers last week. It was the beginning of something beautiful, as Dave filled me in on his take on politics in the province and country, and I told him why I am variously awesome. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dave, an acquaintance of mine from the university, has been threatened by Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach for registering “edstelmach.ca” and using it as a redirect to his blog. Before this threat letter, he had had no contact with the premier’s office. Snippet:

This letter was sent to me regarding my ownership of the domain name edstelmach.ca, which I purchased for approximately $14.00 on April 4, 2007 (four months after Mr. Stelmach became Premier of Alberta). The letter accuses me of interfering with and misappropriating Ed Stelmach’s personality (I’m really not sure where Ed Stelmach’s personality is, but I certainly didn’t take it).

It’s being covered quite heavily by local media, and there are lots of comments at Dave’s blog. Some expound on the legal virtues of Dave’s case—i.e., that there are none and ICANN rulings on the issue mean Stelmach might win this fight—but I think there’s something even more interesting here that Dave touches on: the ridiculous route the premier’s office decided to take with this.

Rather than try and get in touch with Dave to see if they could get him to somehow hand the domain over to Stelmach, they’ve gone ahead with all their muscle and are threatening to sue him. For someone who isn’t doing so hot in the polls, this is an absurdly shortsighted direction to take. Whatever your politics, you can certainly appreciate that the optics of suing a starving student over a $14 domain name aren’t terribly positive.

Good luck to you, Dave. And shame on you, Stelmach.

Popularity: 2% [?]