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The Pirate Party of Canada Is Official

wasme writes "The Pirate Party of Canada has become the first Pirate Party outside of Europe to become an official political party. Elections Canada confirmed with the party that the PPCA has gained 'eligible for registration' status, and can run in elections starting June 14. From the PPCA's official announcement: 'We are pleased to announce that as of April 12, 2010, the Pirate Party of Canada is officially eligible for Party Status. After 10 months of dedication and hard work, we have reached eligible status, which only leaves a 60-day "purgatory" period. After that, we will field candidates in subsequent federal elections, and begin the real work of a political party.'"

12 of 430 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Serving two masters by SpazmodeusG · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you think it's bad I'm guessing you don't vote republican then? Seeing as though they are part of a larger international political organisation.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Democrat_Union

  2. Re:Serving two masters by vadim_t · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, no.

    The different pirate parties don't all work the same. I see it as a generic name for the concept, just like there's a "Communist Party" or "Conservative Party" in multiple countries. They may agree on the basics between themselves, but don't necessarily actively cooperate or agree on the specifics.

    The different pirate parties do disagree on things like how long copyright should last. There's a general agreement that the current length is too long, but the swedish one wants 5 years, while there are others that would be fine with 20.

  3. Re:cd tax by nawitus · · Score: 2, Informative

    Because it all started from copyright. The Green Party (atleast in Finland) also has a broad range of issues they wan't to deal with. But they also started with the conservation of nature and such.

  4. Re:OZ? by nawitus · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's the first outside Europe to be officially registered as a political party.

  5. Re:New name... by CyberDragon777 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Pirate Party stands for sharing information, not privacy.

    Umm, no.

    "Started in 2009, the Pirate Party of Canada strives to reform Canadian copyright laws, reform the patent system, and protect every Canadian’s right to privacy."

    http://www.piratepartyofcanada.com/

    --
    We both said a lot of things that you are going to regret.
  6. Re:New name... by VJ42 · · Score: 2, Informative

    OK, so that seems a bit schizophrenic. You want to increase privacy, but also want to "let information be free" in terms of allowing sharing of information. But increased privacy is the opposite of sharing information, it's increased control over it.

    We want openness and transparency from government and organisations but privacy protections for individuals. There's no contradiction there, just empowerment for the normal person. Copyright would still remain (at a much reduced length) for people who try and make money from others work, just sharing between individuals would be decriminalized. A full PPUK manifesto can be found from here: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/press/releases/2010/mar/22/pirate-party-uk-announces-general-election-manifes/

    --
    If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
  7. Re:Congratulations by silanea · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mod parent up. Piracy (as in people boarding ships to ransack the cargo or kidnap the crew) has never ceased, it was simply marginalised to third-world regions where it did not affect "our" trade and therefore seldom made it into the news.

    --
    Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
  8. Re:Congratulations by poetmatt · · Score: 2, Informative

    it was the content industries of the US that deliberately and forcefully changed the meaning of pirate from "pirate of the high seas" to "software pirate" to "copyright infringement pirate". This was done via putting it in the news constantly. Pirate this, pirate that. So it's very appropriate to have a name that is a direct reminder of what they are up against.

    The smart folks understand this has nothing to do with Somalia, although if it does bring attention to that, it would be a good thing. People need to know that other governments are abusing the fact that Somalia doesn't have a gov't right now.

  9. Re:Serving two masters by metacell · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Swedish Pirate Party has no power whatsoever over pirate parties in other countries. The moment the German pirate party, for example, feel that the Swedes have gone too far, they can just ignore them and go their own way.

    It's actually common that European political parties have "sister parties" in other countries. The Christian Democrats exist in many European countries, as well as Green parties, and Liberal parties. It's not comparable to the International Socialist Organization.

  10. Re:Pirate parties should rename themselves by metacell · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think there may be a slight confusion in terms here - in English-speaking countries, "government" is often used to refer to the state as a whole. In that sense, the entire parliament and all authorities are part of the government.

    In Sweden, the word is used in a stricter sense; only the executive organ is referred to as "government". The rest is referred to simply as "the state".

  11. Re:Congratulations by I_Voter · · Score: 3, Informative

    RE: Political Party names

    In most other nations ( other than the U.S. ) the significance of a ballot label's "imagery" can be limited by the ability of a political party to enforce party platforms.

    In the U.S.(in general) the name of a political party is just a ballot label, and any individual politician can run under it in a primary (nominating) election. In most other democratic nations, a political party is a private member based organization that "owns" a ballot label and chooses politicians to run under that label. Since politicians are responsible the their party, a member based party can, and sometimes does, write a political platform, containing specific issues that it's individual politicians can be required to support.

    The U.S. has not ratified the Copenhagen Document of the Helsinki Accords which states in part: (7.6) - respect the right of individuals and groups to establish, in full freedom, their own political parties or other political organizations and provide such political parties and organizations with the necessary legal guarantees to enable them to compete with each other on a basis of equal treatment before the law and by the authorities;..

    Can You Define What a Political Party is?

    Our Glorious National Committees: Ever wonder what they do?

  12. Re:Other issues? by Per+Wigren · · Score: 2, Informative

    As a Swedish pirate, the swedish pirate party Piratpartiet is the one I know best. Here gun control is not an issue. Pretty much everyone agrees that more guns is bad and less guns is good. I know that that's kind of opposite to the American view but anyway, that not a pirate party question here.

    We explicitly don't take stand in most questions because it will only split the movement and make it weaker. Our issues are VERY important to us and our stand in them are WAY different from the established parties, at least how they act in reality (not what they say in election campaigns).

    In Sweden, there are only minor differences among the established parties. They have big fights over if some benefit should be 80% or 82% for example.

    If you vote for Piratpartiet, it's because you think that our issues are more important than the difference between the established parties. It's not because you think that those other issues are not important.

    --
    My other account has a 3-digit UID.