Hudak takes shot at Grits over proposed Facebook ban

I couldn't help adding this article to show how rediculas the Liberal party is running our country.

It seems the Liberals are taking it too far when it comes to banning that now it's effecting the parties that's getting fed up with all the bans. Rediculas ones as far as Tim Hudak is concerned.

I believe that's good news for us and glad he mentioned the Pit bull ban and the Pit bull puppies as the start of the bans. The government tried to ban cigarette smoking even in your own home, but that quickly got shot down.

Let's face facts and that is the Liberals (McGuinty, Bryant, etc.) propose their bans and the rest of the party goes along with it whether they agree or not. With that being the case, the Liberal's are taking all rights and freedoms away from the public and telling us how we have to live. It's basically, we'll propose a ban and you will follow like sheep because it's Parlament that votes on these issues and you have little say to the decisions. Now they are fighting against themselves. We have dictators taking away our rights and freedom. Perhaps the Liberal party should rename themselves the Communism Party.

Wouldn't time more spent on preventing crime, giving us more health care and other important issues be higher up on their agenda's than Gummy bears and facebooks?

Hudak takes shot at Grits over proposed Facebook ban
Osprey News Network Local News -
Friday, May 04, 2007
Updated @ 10:10:24 AM NIAGARA

As far as Tim Hudak is concerned, the premier of Ontario is obsessed with banning things.

“First Dalton McGuinty banned pit bulls and little pit bull puppies. Then he banned gummy bears and Baby Ruths from our schools and he tried to ban sushi,” Hudak said. “Now he wants to ban Facebook.”

It’s a recycled Tory shot at the governing Liberals in Queen’s Park, but Hudak couldn’t resist using it after word came down Thursday that provincial officials and MPPs could no longer access Facebook, an online social networking program.

Increasingly, politicians are using Facebook to reach younger voters. All three federal party leaders have Facebook pages. St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra has one, as does his Liberal rival, Walt Lastewka. Erie-Lincoln MPP Hudak has two – his personal page, and a re-elect Tim Hudak page.

“It’s just another way to reach our constituents,” Hudak said.

“More and more people, particularly younger people, are online and this is a way for us to communicate with them.” Dykstra echoed Hudak’s comments, adding it’s a way for politicians to reach voters without “always being so deadly serious.”

But the provincial government doesn’t agree. McGuinty said Thursday Facebook does not add value to a workplace environment and civil servants should not be wasting office time visiting the site. So Facebook joined pornographic sites, YouTube and online gambling on the province’s Internet black list.

“Apparently, the premier sees no difference between Facebook and a pornographic website,” Hudak said.

“Really, this is no different from a member’s website.”

St. Catharines Liberal MPP and Tourism Minister Jim Bradley, said there are several ways for citizens to reach their politicians.

“There is a phone in my office,” said Bradley, who has no interest in creating a Facebook page.

“We have e-mail and most MPPs have websites.”

While Hudak and Dykstra say Facebook helps them reach the people in their ridings, not all the content on their pages is work-related. Dykstra said he is competing with other MPs to see who can get the most people to join their pages as online “friends.” A similar competition is obvious on Hudak’s site. Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod wrote on his page: “I super love Tim Hudak — even if he’s trying to beat me in ‘friends’ on Facebook.”

Bradley said Facebook’s appropriateness is under review, but fundamentally, “we believe that government computers should be used for government business.”

McGuinty said it was only responsible to deny access to Facebook at Queen’s Park.

“The folks who work in government are made up of the same DNA as the folks who work in every other sector,” McGuinty said Thursday.

“And from time to time, it’s important for a government to review those websites to which you can gain access through your government computer. “I think Facebook is predominantly a social network. It has its value, but we just don’t really see how it adds value to work that you do in the workplace.”

McGuinty said he was unaware of a Facebook page devoted to him called “Dalton McGuinty is Handsome” — which has 42 members — but joked it should be accessible for government workers.

“We’ll make an exception for that one,” he said.

The premier’s staff could not confirm Thursday that the page existed because their computers can no longer access the site.

With more than two million users in Canada, California-based Facebook is considered one of the fasting-growing websites in the country.