Hollywood's MP loses the election -- hit the road, Sam!

The Canadian MP whom copyfighters loved to hate has lost her job and the election. Sam Bulte was the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Parkdale/High Park, my old riding, and she was embroiled in a scandal when it was revealed that she had financed her election campaigns at the entertainment industry's expense, and subsequently brought down proposal for extremist, US-style copyright laws.

In last night's Canadian elections, Bulte lost to New Democratic Party opponent Peggy Nash by 2213 votes. Nash lives in Parkdale/High Park (Bulte lives in a posh uptown neighborhood that's kilometers away) and ran a very good campaign on a progressive platform; she also had the endorsement of Toronto's much-beloved mayor.

Toward the end of her campaign, Bulte became increasingly desperate, but she really scraped the bottom of the barrel when she threatened to sue her critics and then published an editorial in the Toronto Star that lifted passages from Canadian Recording Industry Association speeches and literature nearly verbatim. Link (Thanks to everyone who wrote in about this, and especially to my old Parkdale/High Park neighbors who fired Sam Bulte!)