Comments on: Pirate Party of Canada

By: Rob Britton

Rob Britton — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:09:19 +0000

I’ve set up a forum for the Pirate Party of Canada at http://www.piratepartyofcanada.com/forum. All are welcome to come join in the discussion.

We are currently in the process of setting up legal entities with which we can manage funds and coordinate to form a legal federal party.

By: mkb

mkb — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:42:55 +0000

I’d like to add a comment, about JasonN’s comment “a much more open and liberal country than Canada,” which I believe is an inaccurate generalization. As a Canadian who lives in Sweden, I can tell you that Sweden is anything but more open or liberal than Canada.

The Pirate Party has a large following in Sweden for one primary reason – name association with The Pirate Bay, so people who support file sharing, also support this party. Don’t confuse a group of people who want to share free music, with thinking that Sweden is more open or liberal than Canada in a general way. The two countries are so different they are hard to compare really.

Society is also much more rigid in Sweden than Canada in many ways; too many to list in this comment. Just the ageism and racism alone in Sweden are in a completely different league than Canada.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:10:50 +0000

I concur with Delta Force concerning the “millions of natural adherents” and the idea that a Pirate Party exists primarily to sway public opinion, expose the morally indefensible social positions and carry forward the natural human sharing-logic that is amplified by cybernetic systems. This can feed into the NDP or whatever other useful entities are present in any given political scenario. I look forward intently to assisting in the creation of a Pirate chapter in Victoria.

By: Delta Force

Delta Force — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:31:21 +0000

The Conservatives and the Liberals are cursing at each other in public whereas in private they are sleeping in the same bed. THe NDP is the only party the cutting edge,especially on copyright laws and fighting against what is happening. I love the NDP and it needs a bigger footprint on the political landscape. Other parties Like the Green Party) are much more on the fringes and pretty much a cheap copy of the NDP. However, the Pirate Party would already have millions of natural adherents (all us geeks on line, programmers, it people) and even more importantly, if a political party will fight for privacy and human rights, it would attract even more people. While the Pirate Party is unlikely to elect a candidate, anything good will be taken up by the NDP and worked into positive change. They are stubborn and been doing it for decades.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:02:03 +0000

More reasons to spoil your ballot:

http://www.spoiledballots.com/

Especially if you are living in a “safe” riding, you won’t affect the elected candidate, but will make your vote count.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:00:14 +0000

From ctv.ca:
”
OTTAWA — Disaffected and angry voters, take note: spoiling your ballot is a crime.

There’s no legal way to express disgust for politics via the ballot, whether by scribbling on it, writing obscenities, or drawing pictures.

According to section 167(2)(a) of the Canada Elections Act, “no person shall wilfully alter, deface or destroy a ballot.” Conviction could bring a $500 fine or three months in jail — even though the chances of getting caught are effectively nil.

Nil, that is, unless the spoiler wants to make a show of the protest — by eating the ballot, for example.
”

So, until the Pirate Party of Canada appears, everyone must come to the polls and spoil their ballot.

By: Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:26:36 +0000

“The idea wouldn’t be to take votes from existing parties, but tap that large block of people who do not vote at all.”

Herein lies the red flag that, up until recently, has been largely ignored by all.

Total voter turnout has been representing somewhere below HALF of all those that could have voted.
Responsible government should have started asking itself long ago, “WHY?!”

Mass “Apathy” was previously blamed, until we started getting groups willing to track “spoiled” ballots. Now, the spoiled ballot is fast becoming a way for people to show what their true demotivations have been – they don’t have any faith in ANY of the parties, or the system itself. (Big surprise there, huh?!)

The fact that any election was “resolved” by less than half of the electorate is, in itself, supposed to be a violation of our own voting system, yet this practice has been going on pretty much unnoticed for some time. And, it means that the actual majority of The People have not been presented with something they believe in.

In such a case, it wouldn’t take much to cash in the untapped votes.
Even the narrowest of platforms, if it addresses enough discontent and appears to truly exist not to screw everyone, could stir up a considerable amount of support.

By: Russell McOrmond

Russell McOrmond — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:48:34 +0000

I think starting the party in Canada would be a great idea. It will become a narrow issue party like the Marijuana party. The idea wouldn’t be to take votes from existing parties, but tap that large block of people who do not vote at all. There are some great individuals in some of the other parties (Charlie Angus being a great sitting MP) that are worthy of support, and maybe the party could even endorse some of these candidates.

We do operate under an antiquated system that the older folks seem to like (They voted against upgrading thus far in Ontario and BC recently) that makes what happened in the EU nearly impossible in Canada. That said, we need to do everything we can to encourage younger people to feel involved in the political process and a party like a Canadian Pirate party will help do that.

That is — unless some of the incumbent parties just wake up and join us in making some of these laws more reasonable.

jrivero,

Every party fights for human rights. We just don’t all agree on what those rights are, or what priorities should be set when there are conflicts between these rights. The basic justification for Copyright and Patent law is even included within the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a27 , and it is conflicting interpretations of these rights that we as a society are debating. I just prioritise IT property rights, communications rights, education rights and privacy rights over the protection of specific business models used by certain companies alleging to be helpful to creators and inventors.

By: Dude From Finland

Dude From Finland — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:19:46 +0000

Abolish the party system all together and vote for the person I say. The major goals of all parties seem to be to honk their own horn as much as possible. Politics these days seem to be more about how the parties are fairing in what elections rather than how they live up to all the promises they made on the campaign trail. The EU election is a prime example of this. Only polls about what party will nab how many seats. What will they be doing once they get those seats? No one knows and the parties themselves don’t seem to eager to tell us.

By: Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:33:12 +0000

I have to agree with jrivero.
I’ve been spoiling my ballots for a long time.

The whole “LibCon” scenario is just gonna continue unless we get an alternative party that has at least a ghost’s chance in hell of gaining a large enough following, in order to break up the status quo. A Pirate Party might just be that kind of alternative.

By: jrivero

jrivero — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:30:44 +0000

In reply to the above comments, I strongly disagree. First, we do not have great options in Canada. The Conservatives and the Liberals are cursing at each other in public whereas in private they are sleeping in the same bed. NDP needs a huge overhaul, they look old in image and in ideas. I love the Green Party but it just doesn’t have a big enough footprint on the political landscape. Other parties (including the Sex Party) are much more on the fringes. A Pirate Party would already have millions of natural adherents (all us geeks on line, programmers, it people) and even more importantly, if a political party will fight for privacy and human rights, it would attract even more people.

Cheers!!!

By: Sukasa

Sukasa — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:05:37 +0000

I agree with JasonN, before any progress can be made, the old system needs to be abolished for something that supports the people. However, like the attacks on BC-STV by the powerful and rich minority that destroyed any chance of a fairer government, any attempt to repair Canada’s horribly broken electoral system will take a lot of concerted effort and money from any group in support of it.

With that said, I am in full support of the Pirate Party of Canada.

By: JasonN

JasonN — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:43:18 +0000

While I am happy with the Pirate Party’s election outcome, they are in a much more open and liberal country than Canada. As much as I hate to say it, I can only see this new Canadian Pirate Party actually making things worse right now. I love the fact that we have great options when it comes to voting here in Canada, but too much vote splitting just leads to shitty government like Harper’s! I think we need a new electoral system first which would better represent all of the votes for all of the parties.