Downsizing

Everytime we get a new leader, new council members, new IT volunteers… everyone always wants to add to the services we offer, they want to show their own skills and their own taste and make our parties offering even better than before. What that has mainly lead to is a bunch of half completed projects, degraded services, extra expenses and generally no benefit to the party. So as one of my first big acts as leader of the Pirate Party of Canada is to roll back a lot of the things we have done and bring us to a more simple structure.

No more forums, no more heavy and overly complex CRM, no more Ryver, no more PiratePad, no more Pirate Linux, no more wordpress, no more $115 per month dedicated server, no more self hosted IRC (you can still connect to irc.pirateparty.ca it will just connect you to another Pirate Party’s server), no more any of that. Our blog will now be hosted on github, all of our changes can be tracked at Github and membership will be managed with https://sso.pirateparty.ca.

Some people might not like these changes, but I think every once in a while we need to just start fresh. I think this is the time to do it. Our party should be focused on advocating policy and rallying our members and not spending time and energy (we don’t have) on maintaining our own version of a live-editable pastebin. Going forward our energy is going to be spent on outreach to you, our members, and to the public in general. We are talking about important topics, and it’s time we start getting that message out there.

Thank you for your support, I am sorry if you are losing a service that you have been using, and fair winds.

– Travis McCrea

The Elections Canada Broadcast Arbitrator Is Trying to Make It Harder for You to Be Informed. Here’s What You Can Do.

Gatineau, QC – For the past 3 years I have attended the Elections Canada Broadcast Arbitrator meetings, where the current Arbitrator Peter S. Grant lays out his decision for how much air time political parties have the right to purchase during elections. In those 3 years almost every minor party has requested equal treatment and access to purchase airtime, just as the larger parties are allowed. These requests have gone ignored, with small parties being given 6 minutes of time while larger parties get around 100 minutes, but we have remained silent.

This year Mr. Grant has gone too far in a bid to silence minor parties by explicitly stating that Canadians should not have to listen to smaller parties because some have regional issues or limited platforms. Parties like mine, The Pirate Party, a general platform party that is on track to take a majority government in Iceland, holds MEP seats in the EU, and many other governmental positions around the world, have been deemed not worthy of having access to buy the same amount of air time as the Liberal or Conservative Party.

Courts have already ruled that Elections Canada cannot treat minor parties differently than the big parties, this was one of the benefits afforded to us in Figuroa vs Canada. Not only are his actions wrong, but they fly in the face of Canadians charter rights to be fully educated about their options and to play a meaningful role in the election process. Every citizen of Canada has the right to play a meaningful role in the election process, and a right to be educated about their options for who might represent them in Parliament. We’re not asking for special treatment, we’re asking for equal treatment.

In the past we let this issue go, however the possibility of election reform and even a push for proportional elections signals a chance at representing the thousands of Canadians who have supported us since we became an officially registered party in 2010. We can finally hold office and hold Parliament accountable for transparency and evidence based policy making.

However, by not giving us access to equal time Peter Grant says “Canadians don’t need to know about the Pirate Party.”

We live in a world where the media talks about the Conservatives, NDP, Liberals, and even the Greens every day, but our candidates are not invited to “all party” debates and functions. We have minimal free advertising compared to what the other groups get. The CPC, LPC, and NDP can always get more airtime than the minimum if they want it. Broadcasters are more reluctant to sell airtime to minor parties, so it’s essential that our parties have the equal opportunity to buy the airtime we need to be competitive against establishment parties.

Our party may be small, but we are not single issue and we are not a local party. We consistently meet the milestones that Elections Canada requires us to achieve to keep our party status. We are a real party, no different than others, and we should have equal opportunity to buy advertising time necessary to get our message out to the Canadians who might otherwise have never heard of us.

Have you heard of us? How many minor parties do you know exist in Canada? Give us the ability to spend the money and tell you about our platform by signing our petition demanding equal access to purchase advertising time:</p>

Click Here To Sign Our Petition</div>

Meeting Schedule May 28th - June 4th

Leadership Results 2016-2017 Term

“Canada has long preoccupied itself with the question of identity. As our country approaches its 150th year, the question has still not receive a truly universal answer. Indeed, since our confederation, there has only been cross-cultural communication between the French, the British, and the Aboriginal, alongside every other culture present within Canada. Nothing truly unique has emerged; the mosaic of Canada appears merely as a jumble of coloured tiles, while the tapestry of Canada presents no image.  

 

The Pirate Party of Canada (PPCA), as a party revolving around the policies of copyright reform, patent reform, and trademark reform, in addition to its information-positive platform, ranging from transparent government to research-informed governance, permits space to answer the question of our identity. The PPCA aims to establish greater growth in our country: intellectually, artistically, and economically. Every single policy is designed for these purposes.  

 

The PPCA privileges a new mode of governance. We seek to do away with contemporary political intrigue. We seek to exalt the individual, the citizen, the Canadian, as the centre of our concern.  

 

We are a party concerned with democracy. We are a party concerned with efficiency. We are a party concerned with change. We are the Pirate Party of Canada.”

“The Pirate Party is at it’s core a remix artist. Our job is to curate, tweak, and re-distribute the tactics, ideas, and policies of other parties and political cultures. We’re believers in polyculture, civil rights, and the political power of leisure. We believe in all-information-to-everyone. We believe in no-bullshit-jobs. We believe in attribution-as-accountability. 

We’re aspirational. We’re building local movements that can run candidates at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. By the end of the year we’ll have a skeletal plan to grow us and carry us through to the next federal election- and pick up seats. 

I don’t need to tell you this. You’re already one of us. Someone reading this right now is going to be leader next term. It could be you. What does your Pirate Party look like?

For me: Transparency. Empowerment. Art. Leisure. Comedy. 

The Pirate Party is a cluster of ideas that are being sorted by p2p intelligence. We evolve over time we ebb and flow. The pirate party is a do-ocracy which means that your time and effort are valued. Your vote, as a member and activist, is proportional to the work that you put in. We don’t believe in the vulgar bureaucracy of old politics. We are disordered by design. We believe in a democracy that emphasizes openness and participatory freedom over endless rounds of voting. We empower each other. Our goal is to get elected so we can empower voters in this same way.

Oldpolitics: inflexible, institutional, controlled, competitive, exclusive

Newpolitics: ad-hoc, anarchistic, decentralized, collaborative, inclusive

Let’s represent ourselves, as individuals, as sincerely and openly as we can, and work with awesome people to do things we care about. Let’s build community, share our research, and change the world. Let’s play: pragmatic utopianism!” 

“I couldn’t be more excited about my role as president of the Pirate Party of Canada and the future we are creating together. I’m located in London, Ontario where myself and fellow activists are building local support for the PPCA and what will hopefully become a vibrant social movement, centered around Pirate ideals and how they relate to the Canadian socio-political context.  

Electoral politics is only one avenue for social change. I hope that whatever happens we can stay true to ourselves and our values, loyal to each other and be a positive force that not only brings previously neglected issues to the forefront of Canadian politics, but also unafraid to challenge mainstream discourse around what it means to fight for a free and open society.  

We are a political party, but more importantly this is about grassroots people power, the Swarm mentality, everyone using their unique skills and passions to empower their communities and shape the future. See you at the ballot box, and forever on the frontlines!“

Membership Drive!

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The Pirate Party of Canada is growing rapidly and we’d like to invite you come on board and participate as we change the face of politics in Canada. Whether you’re a member, a potential candidate, or simply concerned about some of the issues with which we are engaged, we invite you to join our crew and be part of our growth.

Currently, we are:

• Building local groups
• Organizing events both on and offline
• Keeping our members up to date.
• Making pirate party artwork, websites, and campaigns.
• Reaching out to new members.

And to do all these things we need:

• People who like to make music, videos, art, animate, code, and edit.

Print this membership form{.extern} and sign up some friends. If you sign up 15, we’ll mail you a t-shirt. 🙂

Any questions? E-mail us.