Candidates are being flooded with our emails, and it is working!

It’s election time! And your OpenMedia team has been working very hard to make sure Canadians have a direct and easy way to demand candidates from all parties speak up for the Internet we love and deserve. That’s why we’ve launched a handy tool for you to tell your candidates to become a pro-Internet leader and support our action plan crowdsourced by more than 250,000 Canadians. And guess what? It’s working! Yesterday morning, Green Party leader Elizabeth May was the first party leader to endorse our pro-Internet action plan. And for the past 24 hours, we’ve been hearing from candidates all across the country, an incredible 102 of whom have already declared themselves pro-Internet candidates! Check out this wonderful letter we received from Mark Bigland-Pritchard, a Green Party candidate for the Saskatoon-Grasswood riding:

“Dear OpenMedia (and Jay, Lynda, Henry, Isaac, Justine, Edna, Devon, Mateen, Richard, Susan and Sharon, with probably more to come)

OpenMedia requests have been flooding into my inbox - 10 so far today, exceeding any of the other bulk email campaigns which I have received so far during the election period.  And I love it!  I fully support every element of your campaign.  We have a basic right to digital privacy.  Bill C-51 must be repealed as soon as parliament reconvenes, and measures introduced to end mass surveillance and enforce accountability on the spy services.  Internet access should come to be seen as something to which everyone has an equal right, and not a commodity - and as technology develops, the benefits should be accessible to all.  And free expression for all is absolutely at the core of what it means to be an open democratic society.  I was proud to see that Elizabeth May responded so quickly with her support today.

I wish you well with your well-thought-through campaign, and look forward to seeing success for it in the next parliament.

Mark”

This proves one more time that if we speak out together, we can create a huge impact!

And that's not all - momentum is continuing to grow as more and more speak out. Libertarian leader Tim Moen has signed on - and our team were delighted when we saw our first Conservative candidate, Maxime Hupé-Labelle, declare himself pro-Internet. Sadly, he later retracted his endorsement, presumably under pressure from his pro-C-51 party office. Still, at least this brief episode of the hokey-cokey shows our pro-Internet policies have broad appeal to Canadians across the spectrum.

With community groups being spied on by CSIS for speaking out, cell phone black markets developing just to have affordable wireless access... this election is a pivotal point in our democracy where we need to stand up for our rights and have our voices heard.

This is our chance to make a difference for key issues like repealing Bill C-51, and delivering affordable world-class Internet for all Canadians.

In 24 hours we’ve managed to convince 102 candidates from several different parties to commit to prioritizing our digital future. If enough people speak out, we can get even more candidates on board!

So take a moment to write your local candidate about how much Canadians deserve access to world-class, surveillance-free Internet.