this is a more important issue than it appears at first glance - and that 15% number is misleading, given the low bandwidth definitions.

for people living in isolated, rural communities the internet is a kind of a gateway to the world. rural culture expects conformity, and often in ways that uphold social arrangements that much of the developed world considers to be out of date. this is the primary reason that the conservatives get such a lock on these constituencies. their policies are not particularly beneficial to farmers, but their perceived ideology places them as a buffer to protect their purity from infiltration by the outside world.

it sounds trite and cliched. but, wiring rural canada may be the only way to break the conservatives' perpetual lock on rural communities. and, as such, this is really a social engineering plan - one that both the liberals and the ndp (as well as the greens) ought to be backing with the strongest language. it would be very smart politics for them to stand up on this - and follow through with it.

that is, of course, why the conservatives will likely stall on it. they'll do it, sure. but only slowly, and with obfuscations that retain the national post as the de facto dominant source of information. this is simply not going to be in their interests until the dull roar turns into a resounding scream.

rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/fact-check/2015/08/fact-checking-conservatives-rural-broadband-strategy