Press Release

Montreal, Quebec: To date, 62 of the 70 MP Candidates from three parties have
pledged to publish their daily schedules online, should they be elected. The
candidates made the pledge as part of the ‘I Believe In Open’ online
challenge, which asks candidates to commit to five key improvements in
government transparency.

The website, created by the non-partisan VisibleGovernment.ca,
has challenged candidates of all parties to commit to pledges such as 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.

“I’m pleased at the response we’ve gotten from candidates so far,”
said Jennifer Bell, VisibleGovernment.ca’s Executive Director.
“Publishing schedules is a big step. And I think it shows they realize
that better government transparency can be achieved with minimal effort.”

VisibileGovernment.ca sees the on-line schedules as part of larger
strategy of better government-citizen communication. “I think we have
to increase the flow of information from governments to citizens. As
a voter, you should be able to subscribe to a feed of what your
candidate is up to: what they’re saying in parliament, how they’re
voting, and what they’re doing day to day.”

“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 also calling on voters to register their support
for the goal of increased transparency in their federal government.
So far, hundreds of voters from 125 ridings across Canada have signed on.

ibelieveinopen.ca is modeled after the successful change-congress.org
campaign in the U.S., founded by Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi.

http://ibelieveinopen.ca

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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.