Libertarian telecom analyst joining Bernier’s new party effort

Conservative MP Maxime Bernier announced Thursday that Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) analyst Martin Masse will be joining him as he attempts to form a new national political party after leaving the Conservative Party of Canada. “Martin Masse worked for me for the last ten years...and now he’s going to work full-time with my team,” Bernier said at a Thursday afternoon press conference announcing his intention to form a new party in light of policy disagreements with Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. Masse resigned from the MEI on Wednesday after seven years with the organization, MEI spokeswoman Pascale Déry said in an email. In the past, both Masse and Bernier have expressed strong opinions about the regulatory state of the telecom industry in the country -- in line with the libertarian philosophy that the government should have a limited role in the lives of Canadians. During his campaign for Conservative leadership in 2016, Bernier took aim at the CRTC and the previous governments' telecom and wireless policies, calling for the commission to be phased out as a telecom regulator. “As the industry evolves, the CRTC finds new reasons to continue to regulate it, in order to justify its existence. In doing so, the CRTC is not protecting consumers, it is only protecting its own power,” he said during a speech at the 2016 Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto. At the time, Bernier also criticized the wireless policies of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, saying spectrum auctions should not have included set-asides, and the market should have been opened to foreign investors, which would have led to “real competition.” “Perhaps a big American or European company would have decided to enter to the Canadian market, or buy a Canadian provider. The threat of such an entry would have been enough to bring competitive pressure,” Bernier suggested. As well, Martin Masse has often been linked to the libertarian-minded politician and has also advocated for a free market approach to telecom regulation in Canada. Earlier this year, Masse authored a report published by the MEI which concluded that wireless pricing Canada is justified by the speed and quality of incumbent networks. “It is certainly true that the average bill that Canadians pay for their wireless and internet services keeps increasing,” the MEI report said. “But that’s not because they have to pay more for the same services. It’s because they are paying more for more and better services.” Masse has also said in the past that BCE Inc.’s acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. would increase competition. He also opposed the CRTC mandating access to incumbents’ Fibre-to-the-home infrastructure and noted that federal policies aimed at increasing industry competition would not lower mobile prices. In late 2017, Bernier split with other Conservative MPs when he tweeted a link praising an anti-net neutrality editorial by Masse and another researcher Paul Beaudry. Bernier wrote that net neutrality “means more government control over telecom – we need less of it and more free competition.” Even though Bernier’s ideas reject the regulatory reach of the federal government, former CRTC commissioner Timothy Denton doesn’t consider it likely the new party would find early friends in telecom industry. “The telecoms have very big fish to fry and they have an excessively compliant CRTC,” said Denton in a telephone call with The Wire Report. While he doesn’t believe Bernier’s political aspirations are hopeless, Denton thinks that with “large, significant investments in good relations with the current government and potentially good relations with an incoming Conservative government, don't need to worry about any of this.” — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout atahathout@thewirereport.ca

Libertarian telecom analyst joining Bernier’s new party effort

News | August 23, 2018

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Libertarian telecom analyst joining Bernier’s new party effort

News | August 23, 2018

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