I'm hoping that a silver lining in the recent Tory victory is that the door could be opened to greater competition. The big telecom companies in Canada have had their way for too long, and the quality of our internet service has suffered mightily for it.

"Competition" is a funny old concept. When we're talking about competition among telecoms, it's usually strongest in countries where the government has mandated that owners of network infrastructure must allow resale. A hands-off approach from the government gives you natural monopolies, because that initial cost of building the infrastructure is so high.

Every supermarket chain in Germany has their own branded mobile network reseller with prepaid SIM cards, and prices keep going down.