I'm always amazed at how people become so dumbfounded when their governments enact legislation like this.
If there's anything I DO remember from Political Science 101, it was the profs explanation on how Lobbying Groups work.
Elected Officials often rely on lobbying groups to explain issues to them. It's sad, but when you're carrying all the responsibilities that come with holding public office, you often don't have the time to research an issue yourself. Sadly, they can't afford to remain ignorant, because sooner or later, your /MP/Senator/Representative will be be forced to quickly form a position on an issue that they've never even seen before.
And they don't want to end up like this guy:
And this is where Lobbying Groups come in. Lobbying Groups will try and persuade a Politician to support legislation favorable to their cause. It can anything as universally favorable as a Cancer Foundation asking for research money, to something as bad as ISPs asking for the right to enforce bandwidth caps.
The problem, however, is that more often then not, the debate between the two sides of an issue is tilted in favor of the group with more... resources. Naturally, this means that the group representing the interests of (and being funded by) every major ISP in the country tends to crush the side that can do nothing but ask a bunch of tech-savvy internet users for an online petition signature* and a $10 donation. Money talks, pure and simple. It's why Stephen Harper* thinks he did the right thing by signing C-32 into Law! While our side was trying to raise awareness, Lobbyist Groups (funded largely by American companies) spent MILLIONS persuading Harper, his fellow Conservative MPs, and people close to them, to support the bill.
*For those of you you who have yet to grow up, Online Petitions DON'T MEAN FISH ****.
