The Pirate Party, which is focused on digital rights, has enjoyed great success in today's European Parliament elections. The big news is that the Swedish Pirate Party won 7.1 percent of the national vote, good for at least one seat in the European Parliament (and possibly two seats). By comparison, the Green Party in Canada won 6.8 percent of the vote in the 2008 election. In Germany, the newly established Pirate Party won nearly 1 percent of the vote or roughly 250,000 votes.
Pirate Party Success in European Parliament Elections
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German Pirate Party now can get federal funding
The German Pirate Party now can get federal funding, which will piss off the entertainment kartels, and I like it when the entertainment kartels are pissed off.
Time to get a Pirate Party of Canada going, so that I don’t have to spoil my ballot on the next Federal election.
Here is why you should spoil your ballot
By the way, here are the reasons why you may want to spoil your ballot:
http://www.spoiledballots.com/
The Pirate Party of Canada is forming up!
http://www.pp-international.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=20
Time for the Pirate Party in Canada
For the EU elections, the Pirate Party in Germany aimed for 0.5% and got 0.9 in the end, now enabling them to claim official funding from the election budgets. In some districts, they got up to 10% of the votes, bypassing even the conservative party. This is a major deal.
Now we definitely need a Pirate Party here in Canada to shake up those old 20th century politicians and politics. Just look at the price of mobile data plans, the (continuous nonsense) debate about extending copyright, patents on software and a whole lot of other issues. This is what need to be addressed in the 21st century. Bailing out manufacturers who mount combustion engines onto four wheels is not the way to ensure Canada’s prosperity in the future.
The Pirate Party needs to conquer new territory ASAP!
Apples to oranges
European Parliament elections have a proportional representation system. How many Canadians would have voted for the Greens if they thought that vote stood a chance of making some difference in the make up of parliament? Or a Canadian Pirate Party, for that matter?
Pirate Party of Canada should present candidates on university campuses
“European Parliament elections have a proportional representation system. ”
This is why the Pirate Party in Canada should present candidates in the ridings with university campuses in them. Most of their votes will come from university campuses.
Strategic voting
I live in a riding with two universities. As much as I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, I’d be surprised if a Canadian Pirate Party got more than three digits here in Kitchener-Waterloo. The students don’t vote.
McGill Pirate Party of Canada Club in Montreal
Yes, students normally don’t vote. But they are more likely to vote for the Pirate Party than other people. This is why the Pirate Party should relate their goals with respect to students too (expensive textbooks for no reason, for example). It’s a question of marketing.
Having said that, the Pirate Party of Canada is being started as a club at McGill University, Montreal:
McGill Pirate Party of Canada Club
http://www.pp-international.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23769
Ahoy friends,
I have just registered to start a formal club at McGill Called the Pirate Party of Canada Club. It will be a while before it is official, but the wheels are now turning. The plan so far is just to get a bunch of Pirate-Sympathizers together and start scheming about how to build the party. If others start sprouting up similar organizations across the country, we will be off to a good start.
Anyone in Montreal interested in working toward the formation of the Pirate Party of Canada should let me know and we’ll schedule meetings.
Anyone passing through Montreal should let me know and we’ll start meeting each other and sharing ideas.
For anyone thinking about starting similar organizations at other schools, I’ll post the first draft of our club constitution below… it might save you some time. Please feel free to critique. Most of the document is there to satisfy the school’s guidelines. We had a little fun with the preamble but there are many improvements to be made I imagine!
I’m thinking that local clubs like these might serve as a good starting point to get PPofC off the ground. First we’ll try to establish ourselves locally in isolation; then we’ll get the communication lines running and start wikiing together the national movement; then we’ll be ready to write up the formal documents, register with the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, and really get cracking!
Re: Strategic voting
Voting was up among young voters in Sweden, precisely because the Pirate Party presented an issue they cared about! I was receiving and counting votes in a riding in Sweden, and I could tell a lot of the Pirates that showed up had no previous voting experience… They’d come up to the table, waving a ballot and say stuff like “OK, I’m voting for the Pirates, now what do I need to do?” LOL!
Polls show that the Pirate Party had roughly 30% of the under-30-vote, making it the biggest party in that age group.
Presenting candidates in University ridings could be quite effective, imho.