Oh hai!....
Did you forget aboot this?

I didn't.

J

Well, if we dropped it in the English, we'd do the same in French.

You think we should drop the “Party” from the short name?

Hmm. On second thought, Pirate Party might be better so that we can have French version of it also Parti Pirate.

Can I share the draft of the flyer that I did and get the members input during this meeting?

Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=168626646506827

We're going to meet up out front of the vancouver public library central branch and wave flags and posters and what not.

I'm going to hand out a bunch of pamphlets and try to get the man on the street thinkin' hard about freedom of press

Thanks, I am glad to be here, hopefully I can add something.  I think the Pirate Party could make some inroads in the north, information access is a big issue here.  There are a lot of related concerns including education, Government accountability, and corporate responsibility.  Some very ugly history here.

Care to elaborate on that? I'll admit I don't know a lot about northern politics.

For example, there are a lot of young people here that don't vote and don't care, as well as a lot of young short-term residents who don't participate in local politics.

Indeed. Nunavut has the lowest median age of any riding in Canada, something ridiculous like 25, and NWT is similar if memory serves. I think we could do decently there given a slightly radical candidate supporting extending high-speed Internet access to all Canadians, open access, and maybe particularly emphasizing legalisation of non-commercial file sharing.

Some of those people vote Green by default, they don't even know anything about the Green party.

Given the effects of climate change on the arctic, I can't say I blame them.

They also don't seem to be engaging youth, at least in areas where I know people in the west.

In my experience the NDP tends to be the most popular of the mainstream parties in the twentysomething demographic, but then most of the people I know in that age group are university students or recent grads.


Thanks for the details. Please do let me know if my conjecture is off base there.

Running a candidate in a rural riding, especially one as big as Western Arctic, is a toughie because it would require a lot of travel and connections all over the place in order to fight an effective campaign. On the other hand, if you're the only candidate to visit a town of 50 in the middle of nowhere, you can win a lot of their votes simply for making the effort.

Do you think you might be interested in running, or know someone who is? Logistical issues aside, I think it'd be great to field a candidate up north.

what about those bills?

Warrantless wiretapping....real time DPI surveillance....new police powers....
End of the Inter.net.  You know...the kinda things people in this party probably should know aboot but are too busy distracting themselves with 4chan Anonymous idiots and Wikileaks mirrors.

Same reason I'm looking for a new job.

J

Mikkel: Split this off from the Introductions thread.

It's wonderful to have someone from the Territories here to participate, and kudos on making your own path. That's the whole reason this party is here. We've had conversations on access to internet in the North before, and it will be great to hear your input. The only other active Northerner is actually a Canadian citizen living in Alaska.

Thanks, I am glad to be here, hopefully I can add something.  I think the Pirate Party could make some inroads in the north, information access is a big issue here.  There are a lot of related concerns including education, Government accountability, and corporate responsibility.  Some very ugly history here.

This is a pretty small voting population and turnout is under 50%.  I'm not saying that we could win a seat here in a walk or something but I think there is a possibility of a strong showing.  For example, there are a lot of young people here that don't vote and don't care, as well as a lot of young short-term residents who don't participate in local politics.  A lot of those transient workers don't end up being so transient, like me, 11 years and counting!  Some of those people vote Green by default, they don't even know anything about the Green party.

Ethel Blondin was the MP here for 18 years (won by only 53 votes over the NDP in 2004).  She was defeated in 2006 by the NDP, the MP is now Denis Bevington.  The Conservatve party had a strong showing in '08 but lost by 535 votes. 

The Green party picked up over 700 votes here (of 13,000 cast) in 2008.

There is some anger here towards the NDP, especially in regards to the long gun registry vote (which Bevington did vote to get rid of) and resource development.  Unfortunately that means more votes to the Conservative Party.  However, it does create some opportunities since our Party (as I understand it) allows candidates to create a local platform in addition to the main platform.  I don't think I am the only person out West who feels that the NDP has changed with its recent success.  They had a strong rural base that they seem to be turning away from.  They also don't seem to be engaging youth, at least in areas where I know people in the west. 

*sigh* I shouldn't even bring up such completely anecdotal "evidence," still I had an interesting if brief conversation with an NDP pollster/shill a couple of nights ago.  I was a contributer though I never joined the party.  Strange call.

After the brief intro, he literally went straight into "Harper is up to his old tricks again and we are looking at a spring election, we need your support."  Those comments are a little heavy handed for my taste.

I told him that I wouldn't be giving my support, either through money or my vote, and he got pretty angry at that point. "What's with you people up there! (Vancouver area #) You're the third one tonight that has said that!"  I told him what a couple of my concerns were and he cut me off with "those are just wedge issues, they don't matter"

Which is just silly.  A so-called wedge issue is considered a wedge for a reason - because it matters to some people!!

I have emailed our MP quite a few times, he is quite courteous and I think he even answers his own email.  I get some very strange replies when I email Jack Layton though, whoever is answering his email should probably take a little more time to review it before they send it.

1 The accessibility of distributed resources carries with it the need for an information                           
                                            service that enables users


2 the appropriate "host protocols" for intercommunicating over the subnetwork.

I'm not surprised. The Pirate Party movement has been pretty good at getting press beyond the usual political channels.