With less than a month before election day, the federal candidates are traveling the length and breadth of the country, making speeches about the many wonderful things they’ll do for us if they’re elected, posing for photo opportunities, and shaking hands. But are any of them kissing the e-commerce baby?

E-commerce, it’s true, isn’t high on the list of issues that concerns Canadian voters. The media continually whips up concern for topics such as health care, tax cuts, and education. E-commerce rarely rates a story, and never makes it into any of the polls. But if you’re a net-connected Canadian who’s interested in selling or buying a product or service online, or interested in being able to access government services over the net, you should at least be curious about the various political party’s e-commerce promises.

Externally, our e-commerce policy is one of the policies that will determine our status as a country on the world stage and whether or not we’ll be a player in the global economy. Internally, e-commerce is one facet of the ever-burgeoning technological industry; if we want to attract investment, keep and attract technological workers, and continue to develop new technologies, we need e-commerce policies that will support and nurture technological industry.

How big a deal is e-commerce? According to Statistics Canada, Canadian e-commerce revenue was $4.4 billion CDN in 1999. In 2003, Canadian e-commerce revenue is expected to reach $93.67 billion CDN (International Data Corporation). This projected revenue is only 5% of the world share!

Statistics Canada surveyed over 23,000 business and governmental organizations about their “Use of Information and Communications Technologies and Electronic Commerce” for 1999, and found that while connectivity levels are high among Canadian businesses, both the public and private sector have been slow to adopt e-commerce. The main reasons given for this reluctance are the belief that their products or services are not suitable for e-commerce, a preference for maintaining their current business model, and concerns about security.

Yet this week, while the various parties are releasing their federal platforms, e-commerce and technology are getting short shift. While most of the major parties are prepared to recognize technology’s importance, few are prepared to detail any cohesive policy to ensure that Canada nurtures and benefits from the technology industry as it should, or gets any part of the e-commerce pie.

Next page > NDP, Alliance, and Conservative E-Commerce Policies > Page 1, 2, 3

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