PirateParty Manifesto/Goals/Aims
Personally my goals are more along the lines of a consumer rights/advocacy group, the reason being that Canada has a first past the post electoral system, so getting elected is unlikely anytime soon. Pick the battles you can actually win in other words.
-DRM
-Privacy
-Patent law reform
-Copyright law reform
being the primary 4 areas. Educating consumers, citizens, rights holders, etc (I make a clear distinction between the groups), also finding creative ways to protest the current system, and so on. Maybe someday a true political party, but with the electoral system we have that’s not going to be anytime soon.
Please leave comments, I will collate the responses and repost them.
October 15th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
I agree that functionally (practically?) a Canadian Pirate party will be an advocacy group. But by starting only as one strays into the territory of becoming a lobbyist group to me, and I am not too keen on that.
Regardless of the Party’s viability of actually entering government I still think that forming a political party is preferable. All of the goals (which I agree with, especially the creative protests) you mentioned can be accomplished while still being a political party and I don’t think there is anything to loose by striking out in that direction sooner rather then later.
In fact I think that by taking the stance of becoming an official party it shows a more committed effort toward actually getting to the level of introducing policy changes instead of just advocating them from the sidelines. Which for me is closely tied to the Pirate Party. The requirements of having a political party officially registered aren’t so high (or unlike those of becoming an advocacy group) that it is unrealistic to accomplish either.
However, this being said I think the main problem is any Pirate Party in essence is (and should be I think at this time) a single issue party, which isn’t very workable in a first past the post system.
Hopefully this post makes enough sense. I really think this issue needs to be discussed in depth and both views should be fleshed out more, so we can get a better picture of the positives of being an advocacy group vs. political party and vis versa.
November 17th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
I too agree with forming a political party. Even though it is unlikely that we could become elected to any position, as a registered party we have the ability to spread our message more easily and more publicly than otherwise.
February 5th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I, too, like the idea of an official political party. I think it lends a certain element of cred. It also has a certain level of attention-grabbing which could be useful - “whah? you’re a political party??” - and all of a sudden another person is paying attention. Obviously it’s not about actually running but about raising awareness and getting some benefits like media coverage in the process (like the marijuana party). Somehow being more of a lobbying group feels like it could be dismissed/ignored more easily…..
Exciting times!
-NomIg.