Edmonton, April 15, 2011 –
Christopher White, creator of Canada's largest political facebook group, Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament, is taking on the political parties by running as an Independent in his riding of Edmonton-Strathcona. He is reaching out with a national platform, offering Canadians an unprecedented level of access and feedback through his Open Source Campaign initiative.
“I'm running a national campaign – from Edmonton,” says Christopher. “My chances of winning are slim and I'd rather see my policies enacted than forgotten, so I've made it Open Source. Any politician is free to borrow what they like and graft it onto their platform.”
In a Canadian political first, Christopher has opened up his platform, creating an interactive Wiki that will allow Canadians to comment, debate and critique his policies.
“No platform can insulate itself from reality or common sense. I want people to challenge my policies so I can defend them or incorporate their feedback to make it better. It takes a certain amount of hubris to run for politics, but I don't think my platform is the be-all-end-all for Canada.”
Christopher's platform commits to returning to a balanced budget by 2014/15 by cutting back on current spending while targeting growth in Education, Health and Employment to be paid for by new revenue streams.
“If you take a few minutes to read the platform, it doesn't fit nicely into the left-right dichotomy. I'm slowing growth of Health Care
Transfers and trimming Arts spending but I'm also committed to a Carbon Tax and more education funding. It's a modest platform that avoid the pandering and half-measures being offered by the parties in this election.”
Christopher White became involved in Federal politics in January 2010 when he created the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group in response to Stephen Harper's proroguing of Parliament in December 2009. This helped fuel the nation-wide anti-prorogation protests and led to his participation at a Liberal sponsored Round table on Democratic Reform as well as an appearance at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee.
