A government can simultaneously be the most secretive, controlling Canadian government in recent memory and be welcomed into the club of "open government". The announcements highlight a few problems with the "open data movement" (Wikipedia page):
- It's not a movement, at least in any reasonable political or cultural sense of the word,
- It's doing nothing for transparency and accountability in government,
- It's co-opting the language of progressive change in pursuit of what turns out to be a small-government-focused subsidy for industry.
In short, the open data movement is a joke. Those who are on the political left who lend their support to it have some hard decisions to make.
