This week I was able to record the 15th episode of my 2nd season of Exit 425; this was a conversation with Murray Simser, Founder and Leader of Citizn AI and Citizn GPT. Murray has some significant tech experience (sislicon valley level) and has sold code to governments to manage things that I can’t imagine. A few years ago, Murray came up with the idea that a well crafted program could assist people in developing opinions about issues in Canada (to start…there are international aspirations) through education and information, and then provide a forum for those opinions and thoughts where politicians from all levels of government can consult to know what people in their jursidiction really want.
In late January, the Wednesday before a by-election had to be called in Durham Electoral District (Riding), Prime Minister Trudeau took time out of the safety of a caucus meeting to allow media to record his rant about a number of things, including the soon-to-be-called by-election, and specifically, the candidate chosen to run for the Conservative Party of Canada, Jamil Jivani.
Jamil Jivani is a smart, accomplished man, who has had a national media presence and has some opinions, as a mixed race man, that do not sit well with many leftists; those sympathetic to the Prime Ministers not-so-moderate-left positions. He chastised Mr. Jivani for being a two-fer, someone who is a party insider and an ideologue. PMJT went on about how his candidate, a local named Robert Rock would be a voice for Durham in Canada’s Parliament, and not a voice for the Liberal party to the riding.
Part of the irony of this was that a member of the Trudeau caucus from Newfoundland had just been reprimanded for some comments he made about the need for the Prime Minister to step down…speaking for the people in his riding. That same day, he suddenly retracted the comments. The other on-going bit that challenges the local voice of any party’s representatives is the work of party whips whose job it is to make sure their party’s position is reflected in their vote on any issue.
Politicians can say a lot about being a voice for their riding, or electoral district. Often there are close to 100 000 people in a riding, so how to measure just what they want. This is a question I posed to Murray Simser in our conversation. Too often we see that the voice that is represented is that of a small, select group that have a vested interest/benefit in what they want the representative to do, and those without the access that this group has is never actually heard or even represented.
Murray’s AI tools, Citizn and Democracy GPT offer an opportunity for Canadians (again…let’s start with the best) of all income, education, interest levels, with perspectives ranging from tradespeople to teachers, to garbage workers through to surgeons, and even politicos (elected reps will be excluded) to become informed with high quality information and then express their thoughts and opinions on any issue. This information then will be put together in a data pack that politicians can access and then use their vote to support policies that reflect the priorities of their constituents.
The motivating factor that will cause party whips to pay attention and for regular representatives to pay attention, will be the public knowledge of the consolidated information and the idea that most politicians like to be re-elected. Re-election is already a motivation, but somehow we still seem to be disappointed in how effectively our representatives actuall represent us!
Please check out the full episode on Spotify (and others) and YouTube. Short versions featuring different, individual topics can be found on LinkedIn, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, X and more.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/48DtE9yoNyjPjxG0cNxhlt?si=2a7894966d49476f
YouTube: https://youtu.be/2t1zdqW4e3Y?si=NZmicpx20xJl3r45
Check out Murray’s work at citizn.world .
Thank you for reading, listening and or watching! Please like and subscribe!
Exit 425. It’s Where We Live!
