Press Release
Montreal, Quebec: 52 MP Candidates have taken the ‘I Believe in Open’ pledge. The pledge, created by the non-partisan VisibleGovernment.ca, challenges candidates to commit to five key improvements in government transparency, including making campaign promises measurable, publishing their MP schedule on the internet, allowing public access to government scientific and survey data, and
making it easier for Canadians to obtain government information.
The campaign website, ibelieveinopen.ca, collects pledges from MP candidates supporting the call for greater government transparency. ibelieveinopen.ca is also calling on voters to register their support for the goal of increased transparency in their federal government.
“Few Canadians believe campaign promises, and even fewer know what their governments do on a day to day basis. Our goal is to open up government and let citizens see what their taxes are paying for,” said Jennifer Bell, Executive Director of VisibleGovernment.ca.
“Per capita, Canadians are the most web-savvy people in the world, yet our federal government isn’t using web 2.0 technologies to open up government to Canadians. It’s time to change this,” concluded Bell.
ibelieveinopen.ca is modeled after the successful change-congress.org campaign in the U.S., founded by Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi. In fact, ibelieveinopen.ca received moral and technical help from them. The site collects signups from voters, who choose which pledges they support. The site also shows running totals of provinces and ridings where voters ‘Believe in Open’. Candidates are notified when the number of voter sign-ups in their riding passes set levels, and voters are notified when candidates in their riding take the pledge.
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For further information contact: VisibleGovernment.ca Executive Director, Jennifer Bell at 514-513-0475 or jennifer@visiblegovernment.ca.
VisibleGovernment.ca is a newly established non-partisan, non-profit organization promoting online tools for government transparency in Canada.