PRESS RELEASE: The Pirate Party Pushes For A Renewed Attempt at Electoral Reform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Winnipeg, MB – July 18th –The Pirate Party is excited the NDP and Liberal party have finally realized that which we’ve known since our founding 6 years ago:  Canada needs electoral reform. Sadly, the proposals by the two parties are shallow pandering attempts which avoid what Canadians really want:  Real proportional representation and a system that allows Canadians to be engaged.

The Pirate Party’s electoral reform policy is first and foremost to increase the public’s input and to force government to be responsive; to preserve our electoral integrity by repealing the (Un)Fair Election Act and removing the giant new financial loopholes barely reported and left unnoticed by the public. The Fair Election Act would lead to a U.S. style long, expensive Super PAC campaign where the party or candidate with the wealthiest supporters has the best chance at winning. We need to end the Americanization of Canadian politics. To protect our democracy and provide equal voices to all Canadians, we  propose equal free advertising time on major broadcast and communication media for all parties.  

To even the playing field and to truly represent the constituents, we also believe in making it fairer for the independent candidates to be able to build on past successes. Allowing them to start where they left off reduces the advantage the established political parties have over them.

Online voting is reckless and undemocratic; it removes the complete anonymity and coercion-free environment of current polling booths. There is no way to guarantee proper voting conditions with an online voting system. The Pirate Party will restore  the per-vote subsidy, which is a great equalizer because it ensures more competition and candidates choices that would spur more innovation,  as opposed to complacency and stagnation in our politics. The per-vote  subsidy costs little, and ensures every Canadian has an equal voice  regardless of financial standings.

Canada needs a responsible implementation and selection of a new proportional electoral system.

We also support increasing the independence and expanding the power of  electoral commissioner to investigates and prosecute electoral and  spending fraud and any attempts to disenfranchise voters, including  instances similar to or worse than last election’s robocall fraud and  Dean Del Maestro fraudulent election spendings scheme.

Lastly, but most importantly, we propose a new Constituents-Representatives-Interaction-System (CRIS) to deal with  broken election promises and the lack of accountability and transparency in governing. This will also increase voter engagement and prevent apathy by empowering and giving the people real voices and input into votes and issues as they happen. 

For full details, please see our policy blog on “Electoral Reform and Open Democracy System” at: https://www.pirateparty.ca/2015/07/16/electoral-reform-and-open-democracy-system/

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The  Pirate Party is a federal political party that breaches the traditional  political labels and believes that our democracy needs an upgrade. We  believe in protecting the public interest and its fundamental rights,  and protecting freedoms and privacy in the digital age and beyond. This  includes creative and innovative freedom, right to a decent life, and  open access to information. You can find out more online at www.pirateparty.ca .

Category: Elections, Fairness, Government Transparency, Political Fundraising. Tags: , , , , .
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>>>Pourquoi le Parti Pirate?<<<

Why Pirate Party?

1. Open Democracy

One of our main founding principles was Open Government. This means an Open Data policy with proactive disclosure and free access to government data. This will allow anyone to scrutinize and catch any error, negligence or corruption early on. Open Government also means increased transparency, and giving constituents real voices. This can be achieved with electoral reform .

2. Mincome / Basic Income Guarantee (B.I.G.)

Unemployment and income inequality is on the rise and we risk a breakdown of social cohesion without a system for resource distribution as we face increased automation. We're shifting from a bureaucratic culture of constant work-demands to a culture of passion, joy, and learning for the sake of learning.

Mincome will lead to cost savings and create a sustainable economy. See our press release for how that can be achieved.

3. Autonomy and Decentralization

We believe that the world works best when individuals are making informed decisions. It is our goal to get all information to all people, so they may be more informed voters, consumers, participants, and teachers. We do not need to force information culture & the hacker ethic onto people we can simply allow them to choose access. We believe the right to choose our identity, name, and appearance is inalienable.

4. Copyright and Patent Reform
Copyright and patent's main purpose was for propagation of culture and innovation. Our current copyright and patent laws are continuously being corrupted due to lobbying by copyright and patent monopolist. These monopolist refuses to innovate and provide wider access and pass on the savings from the new lower distribution cost. Instead the copyright and patent terms keeps getting extended to benefit the few to the detriment of the public interest. The opposite should happen. Copyright and patent terms should be shortened since our new information infrastructure (i.e. the internet) have brought us cheaper and faster means of distributing media contents and information. Mandatory licensing, owner's rights to a non-DRM product, open access to research data and shorter copyright term are some of the natural changes that is needed if we want to create a more open and progressive society. This will ensure future artist and innovator are not hampered by patent and copyright gatekeepers who uses rent seeking law for anti-competitive purposes.

Human beings increasingly have a moral duty to share information with one another. Libraries are stuck in the last century, enforcing artificial scarcity on digital content. If libraries were upgraded for the modern age, we would no longer need filesharing. And let's face it, watching and listening to whatever you want to is fun. It breaks down arbitrary global borders of access and creates a global culture defined by people- not by corporations.

At the Pirate Party- we believe more information leads to better decisions. We believe that more voices leads to better compromises. We believe in Canadians.

Our democracy need a serious upgrade and Pirate Party aims to change politics to the way it should be.

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Pirate Party of Canada

https://www.pirateparty.ca/