PRESS RELEASE: NDP rejection of candidate Not Just Their Loss

Fox Creek, AB - July 10th
On July 2 the CBC reported that Paul Manly had been blocked from seeking the NDP’s nomination in Nanaimo-Ladysmith. This is the most recent in a string of issues with federal party nominations among the ‘big three’ parties in Parliament. The reason given was that the NDP feared Paul Manly was going to make Mideast politics an election issue. An assertion that Mr. Manly denies. The Pirate Party of Canada feels that even if that were true it would be insufficient and the blocking of Paul Manly is not purely an internal NDP issue.
Currently, party leaders in Canada have many formal and informal ways to influence the nomination of candidates. These abilities has been abused in the past to go over the heads of local associations and drop in star candidates or tip the odds in favour of the nominee the party leadership would like to have. While tempting to think of this as a purely internal matter for a party it must be remembered that there are only five parties that have been able to win seats in Parliament since 2004. With so few parties competitive in elections it becomes essential that there be vigorous competition for the party nominations as to allow diverse political opinions to be shared. It is exactly for this reason the Pirate Party both allows candidates to voice their own stance on issues outside the platform and gives candidates considerable leeway on party policy itself.
“It has been a disturbing trend by parties in recent years to seek ideological conformity rather than diverse belief. Dissent and minority opinions have become something to be attacked rather than celebrated. I fear for the future of our democracy if this continues”, says James Wilson, Leader of the Pirate Party of Canada. “I don’t know much about Mr. Manly’s political beliefs but if he is committed to working for the voters of Nanaimo-Ladysmith, and all Canadians, I invite him to contact the Pirate Party about the possibility of becoming our candidate in 2015″.
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The Pirate Party of Canada is a federal political party focused on thoughtful information policy reform, genuine democracy, civil liberties, and the freedom of the Internet. You can find out more online at www.pirateparty.ca .

Comments

2 comments for PRESS RELEASE: NDP rejection of candidate Not Just Their Loss

  1. Dan Ricard commented at

    Great comments
    Ideological conforming that the 3 parties do will eventually hurt them and maybe wake up the sleepy voters of this country

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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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