An infographic from our earlier campaign’s opening remarks, explaining how we can afford Mincome or Basic Income Guarantee (B.I.G.) without raising taxes.
Link to full explainer video in English and French: https://www.pirateparty.ca/2015/08/10/open-democracy-economy-and-mincome/{.extern}
**»>version française««/a></span></span>**
Here is a statement we’ve made prior to the Maclean’s debate. It talks about Open Democracy, Economy, Cost & Savings of Mincome, and a bit of Pirate history.
A 1080p HD version of this video can be downloaded at:
Two of the issues that are of primary concerns among Canadians right now is the state of our democracy and economy. Increasing number of Canadians are struggling to make ends meet. As a result household debt is increasing. Politicians continue to introduce election time politically, motivated tax credits. This will lead to further increase in government bureaucracy and costs, with little economic benefit. Our tax system will also increase in complexity adding time and cost to those who file taxes. Not to mention the unfocused way these tax credits grow every election period, making it unsustainable.
A bit of background about the origin of the pirate movement and its name. The Pirate Party of Canada was founded by a group of people including university students who would normally have avoided politics. However, the continuous erosion of rights and freedom, and the security of the new information infrastructure, by the copyright monopolist and the corruption of government officials, roused these individuals from their comfortable lifestyles into the fire of politics. It was a time when copyright reform advocates were being jailed and prosecuted like heretics, while laws are passed to continuously extend copyrights to benefit the controlling agencies long after an artist has died. The song Happy birthday is still copyrighted to this day by an organization who was not the original creator of the work. This shows why our copyright law needs serious reform to meet the realities of the digital age. During the late 20th to the early 21st century, Toyota RAV4 was apparently sued to ensure they would not manufacture anymore of the 300 electric vehicles they had produced using the NimH battery. They were allegedly sued by companies that are subsidiaries of major oil companies who stand to lose big, if electric vehicle take off. The company bought the battery patent from General Motors. This would demonstrate why our patents need a reform to ensure innovators cannot be prevented from researching and manufacturing the next generation of breakthroughs.
The pirate movement is an international movement that is continuing to grow out of shared beliefs that our democracy needs an upgrade. The Iceland Pirate Party is now the most popular political party in their country, surpassing their conservative counterpart. The shared pirate principle of Open Government means government should make their data readily available in an electronic format that can easily be accessed and analyzed by the press, experts and citizens in general. There is no greater oversight against government waste and corruption than millions of eyes and brains who have unhindered access to government data. The data must be distributed in an open source format available to all for free, and view-able with freely available software.
We are living in an era where there is an abundance of information. But the technologies with the potential for providing the greatest democratization platform is instead, being used to enforce unprecedented control on information. Privacy is increasingly being violated. Dissenters appearing before the senate hearings are labelled as terrorists the same way McCarthy used to label his critics as communist. The open nature and security of the internet is being sacrificed in the name of profit and mass surveillance.
We are at a critical juncture with opportunity to move toward a sustainable economy and environment, or toward increasing inequalities, unchecked pollution, and growing dysfunction in government.
There is a simple solution to our economic challenges. It is called Mincome. Every Canadian, regardless of their age and abilities, will be guaranteed and assured as having income to meet their basic needs. It is a tested and much studied program that was meant to revolutionize and improve the delivery of social programs. There is a misconception that it will be expensive.
Some calculated it as number of population times guaranteed income. Which equals hundreds of billions of dollars. That form of guaranteed income is often called Universal Basic Income. Proponent consider that a fairer non-stigmatizing dividends for everyone. However, unlike Mincome, it would require a bit of government restructuring. Mincome on the other hand can be implemented now without tax increase. The resulting hundreds of billions in savings would make universal basic income affordable, if we choose to go down that route in the future.
The brilliance of Mincome, designed by bright economic minds, calculates it based on the family unit and measures of poverty or livable income. This means the most generous Mincome that totally eradicates economic poverty would cost only about $40 to $50 billion dollars. It is a large amount of money, but compared to how our money is being wasted right now, we can easily find a savings opportunity without raising taxes. To put it into perspective, our current politically motivated boutique tax credits cost us at least $23 billion dollars. However, that is before the current wave of election time tax credits. Assuming we retain the charitable donation and education tax credits, we will be able to get rid of $19 billion of these credits and put Mincome in its place.
We have also been subsidizing corporations to the tune of $648 billion over 30 years. That is about $22 billion per year. These subsidies were given in vain hope that there would be trickle down effects. Notwithstanding that has not happened and in times of economic difficulty the subsidized corporations held onto their capital. And worst of all, they pack their bags along with our money into a cheaper labour market. Replace that with Mincome and it will provide a natural big boost to our economy. Empowering the people to pursue their dreams or start their ventures. The increased spending power will be a boon for business and serves as a big stimulant.
Approximately $11 billion in social transfer can now be integrated into the Mincome program along with $3 billion GST credit and $13 billion child benefit.
And those are only from the direct savings.
The consequential savings will be far bigger and wider. For example, costs to health care, criminal justice and lost productivity due to poverty are estimated at $72 billion. Fraser institute estimated income support system costs, which includes bureaucracy and payout, to be around $185 billion.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said, while expressing his support for a guaranteed income, that the housing and education problem would be easier to solve, once poverty was eliminated through guaranteed income. He predicted that a host of positive psychological changes inevitably would result from wide-scale economic security. And from knowing you have the means to seek self-improvement.
As for the leadership’s debate, while we have lots of work left to do to earn Canadian votes and be on the leaders debate, we believe any party with representation in parliament should be part of every leadership debate. To not do so , would deny Canadians the chance to hear as wide a range of ideas as possible among their elected representatives. We support the call for other debate organizers to include Elizabeth May. We intend to participate in these debates by responding to questions raised during the debate and analyzing what the various leaders have said. Please visit our website (votepirate.ca or pirateparty.ca) or subscribe to our press releases and be notified once our response is released.
Thank you.
Youtube:
Vimeo:
Début de la déclaration”
Deux des questions faisant partie des principales préoccupations des Canadiens en ce moment concernent l’état de notre démocratie et de notre économie. Un nombre croissant de Canadiens ont du mal à joindre les deux bouts. Par conséquent, l’endettement des ménages s’alourdit. Les politiciens persistent à vous présenter des crédits d’impôt motivés par l’échéance des élections politiques. Cela provoquera d’autres charges dans la bureaucratie et dans les coûts, avec peu d’avantages économiques. La complexité de notre régime fiscal sera également accentuée, ce qui augmentera le temps et les frais de ceux qui produisent leurs déclarations de revenus. Et cela sans mentionner le manque de contrôle dans le foisonnement des crédits d’impôt qui se multiplient à chaque période électorale, ce qui est insoutenable.
Un peu d’histoire sur l’origine du mouvement Pirate et sur son nom. Le Parti Pirate du Canada a été fondé par un groupe de personnes, dont des étudiants universitaires, qui auraient ordinairement évité la politique. Toutefois, l’érosion continue des droits et libertés, la sécurité de la nouvelle infrastructure de l’information, le monopole du droit d’auteur et la corruption des fonctionnaires, ont sorti ces personnes de leur mode de vie confortable pour les propulser dans le feu de la politique. Il fut un temps où les défenseurs de la réforme du droit d’auteur étaient emprisonnés et poursuivis comme des hérétiques, alors que des lois étaient votées dans le but d’étendre sans cesse les droits d’auteur au profit d’organismes de contrôle, même longtemps après la mort de l’artiste. La chanson “Joyeux anniversaire” est à ce jour toujours protégée par une organisation qui n’a pas créé l’œuvre. Cela démontre pourquoi notre loi sur les droits d’auteur a besoin d’une sérieuse réforme pour répondre aux réalités de l’ère du numérique. Au cours de la fin du 20e siècle jusqu’au début du 21e siècle, le Toyota RAV4 a apparemment fait l’objet d’une poursuite visant à empêcher une continuation de la production après les 300 véhicules électriques qui ont été fabriqués en utilisant la batterie NimH. Ils ont prétendument été poursuivis par des entreprises filiales des grandes compagnies pétrolières, qui risquaient de perdre gros si les véhicules électriques venaient à voir le jour. La société a acheté la batterie brevetée de General Motors. Cette approche serait la preuve que notre système de brevets a besoin d’une réforme pour qu’on ne puisse plus empêcher les innovateurs de rechercher et de produire la prochaine génération de découvertes.
Le mouvement Pirate est un mouvement international qui ne cesse de se développer sur la conviction commune voulant que notre démocratie ait besoin d’une mise à niveau. Le Parti Pirate d’Islande est désormais le parti politique le plus populaire dans ce pays, dépassant ainsi son homologue conservateur. Le principe partagé du parti Pirate consiste en une transparence du gouvernement, ce qui signifie que le gouvernement devrait donner libre accès à ses données sous une forme électronique pouvant être facilement accessible et analysée par la presse, les experts et les citoyens en général. Aucune surveillance n’est meilleure contre le gaspillage et la corruption gouvernementale que des millions d’yeux et de cerveaux ayant librement accès aux données du gouvernement. Les données se doivent d’être distribuées dans un format à code ouvert disponible à tous gratuitement et consultable à l’aide de logiciels librement disponibles.
Nous vivons à une époque où les informations abondent. Mais les technologies ayant le potentiel de fournir la plus grande plateforme de démocratisation sont plutôt utilisées dans le but d’appliquer un contrôle sans précédent sur l’information. La vie privée est de plus en plus bafouée. Les dissidents qui comparaissent devant les auditions du Sénat sont étiquetés comme des terroristes, de la même façon que McCarthy cataloguait ses détracteurs comme étant communistes. La nature ouverte et la sécurité de l’internet sont sacrifiées au nom du profit et de la surveillance de masse.
Nous sommes à une étape décisive, avec la possibilité d’aller de l’avant vers une économie et un environnement durables, ou vers une augmentation des inégalités, une pollution incontrôlable et un dysfonctionnement croissant au sein du gouvernement.
Il existe une solution simple à nos défis économiques. Cette solution s’appelle Mincome. Tous les Canadiens, quels que soient leur âge et leurs habiletés, auront la garantie et l’assurance de recevoir un revenu visant à satisfaire leurs besoins essentiels. Ce programme a été testé et bien étudié, et il était censé révolutionner et améliorer la prestation des programmes sociaux. Il existe un malentendu voulant qu’il soit coûteux.
Certains ont fait le calcul d’une population desservie multiplié par un revenu garanti. Ce qui équivaut à des centaines de milliards de dollars. Cette forme de revenu garanti est souvent appelée revenu de base universel. Les défenseurs le considèrent comme une contribution non discriminatoire pour tous. Toutefois, contrairement à Mincome, une petite restructuration du gouvernement serait nécessaire. En revanche, Mincome peut être implémentée dès maintenant sans augmentation d’impôts. Les centaines de milliards d’économies qui en résulteraient rendraient le revenu universel de base abordable, si nous choisissons de nous diriger vers cette voie à l’avenir.
Le génie de Mincome, conçu par de brillants esprits économiques, fait un calcul sur la cellule familiale et les mesures de pauvreté ou de revenu de subsistance. Cela signifie que le Mincome le plus généreux, qui éliminerait totalement la pauvreté économique, coûterait seulement environ 40 $ à 50 milliards de dollars. C’est une grosse somme d’argent, mais considérant la façon dont notre argent est gaspillé en ce moment, il serait très facile de trouver une possibilité d’épargne sans augmenter les impôts. Pour mettre cela en perspective, nos crédits d’impôt à la pièce, politiquement motivés, nous coûtent un minimum de 23 milliards de dollars. Cependant, il s’agit du montant précédent les crédits d’impôt de la vague électorale actuelle. En supposant que nous conservons les dons de bienfaisance et les crédits d’impôt s’appliquant à l’éducation, nous serons en mesure de nous débarrasser de 19 $ milliards de ces crédits et les remplacer par Mincome.
Nous avons également subventionné des sociétés à hauteur de 648 $ milliards depuis 30 ans. Cela représente environ 22 $ milliards par an. Ces subventions ont été offertes avec le faux espoir de retombées économiques. Malgré que ce ne soit pas arrivé en période de difficultés économiques, les sociétés subventionnées se sont agrippées à leur capital. Et le pire de tout, c’est qu’ils ont fait leurs valises en emportant notre argent dans des marchés de main-d’œuvre à rabais. Remplacez cela par Mincome et notre économie recevra un énorme coup de pouce naturel. Permettre aux gens de réaliser leurs rêves ou de démarrer leurs entreprises. Le pouvoir d’achat accru sera une bénédiction pour les entreprises et leur servira de grand stimulant.
Environ 11 $ milliards en transferts sociaux peuvent dès maintenant être intégrés dans le programme Mincome, et à cela s’ajoute le crédit de 3 $ milliards pour la TPS et la prestation pour enfants de 13 $ milliards.
Et on ne parle que des économies directes.
Les économies indirectes seront beaucoup plus étendues et plus vastes. Par exemple, les coûts reliés aux soins de santé, à la justice criminelle et à la perte de productivité causés par la pauvreté sont estimés à 72 $ milliards. L’Institut Fraser a évalué que les coûts du système de la sécurité du revenu, qui incluent la bureaucratie et les versements, se situent aux environs de 185 $ milliards.
Comme l’a déclaré le Dr Martin Luther King Jr. en exprimant son soutien envers un revenu garanti, les problèmes de logement et d’éducation seraient plus facile à résoudre après avoir éliminé la pauvreté à l’aide d’un revenu garanti. Il a prédit qu’une foule de changements psychologiques positifs résulteraient inévitablement d’une sécurité économique à grande échelle. Et le sachant, vous avez les moyens de chercher une amélioration.
En ce qui concerne le débat sur la direction, bien qu’il nous reste beaucoup de travail à accomplir pour gagner des voix canadiennes et faire partie du débat, nous croyons que tout parti représenté au Parlement devrait faire partie de chaque débat des chefs. Empêcher cela priverait les Canadiens de la chance de pouvoir entendre un éventail d’idées aussi vaste que possible parmi leurs représentants élus. Nous soutenons l’appel visant à demander aux autres organisateurs de débat d’inclure Elizabeth May. Nous avons l’intention de participer à ces débats en répondant aux questions soulevées lors du débat et en analysant ce que diront les différents dirigeants. Veuillez visiter notre site Web (votepirate.ca ou pirateparty.ca) ou abonnez-vous à nos communiqués de presse pour être informé lorsque notre réponse sera publiée.
Nous vous remercions.
—fin de la déclaration—
La version française suit l’anglais
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY, MINCOME, AND DOING AWAY WITH VOTE BUYING TAX CREDITS
Winnipeg, Manitoba – July 27, 2022 – It is time for Canada to pursue a better economic plan that is sustainable. The Universal Child Care Benefit election timed spending is an illustration of how Canada could be driven into persistent financial deficits. Every election, politicians make huge spending announcements to influence Canadian votes.
The Pirate Party of Canada calls for the removal of all such tax credits. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s himself was aware of this problem when he wrote his University of Calgary thesis. He argued that spending could lead to deficits as governments plan budgets with elections in mind[1]. Eliminating political tax credits will save our government at least $23 billion[2]. Combined with the unfruitful corporate subsidies we’ve been paying out (~ $648 billion over 30 years[3]), this would provide enough funds to pay for a Mincome program. Canadians can have a Mincome program at a level that is sufficient enough to totally eliminate economic poverty (with an estimated cost of $50.3 billion [4]), integrating that with existing Mincome type programs (i.e. Elderly benefits, GST Credit and Children’s Benefits, which was projected to cost $53.3 billion in the 2012-2013 Federal Budget[5] and has not changed much year-over-year). A guaranteed income program could improve the welfare system, which is as messy and ineffective as political tax credits. The Dauphin, Manitoba experiment has shown that the Mincome program worked [6] and provides a great positive socio-economic effect. Mincome will provide a huge constant natural stimulus from consumer spending, and create jobs that no government corporate subsidies have been able to do.
“Mincome will have far reaching positive effects. It will lead to lower health care costs since low income earners are at greater risk of having a more costly chronic illness[7]. There would be significant savings in government bureaucracy, and reduced law enforcement costs as crime decreases along with poverty. As the Dauphin experiment has shown, the mental health problem will also decrease. This will make people more productive and lead to fewer instances of people reaching their breaking point, which often has catastrophic consequences to communities and society at large.” say Ric Lim, Leader of the Pirate Party of Canada. “Mincome will also prepare us for the inevitable disappearance of some jobs where automation and robotics would lead to cost savings and increased productivity. It will make us less fearful of rapid technological advancement. Plus it provides work incentives as opposed to work disincentives under the current welfare system. And the best of all, it can be done now without any tax increase. All that is needed is a political resolve.”
The Pirate Party is a federal political party that believes in upgrading our democracy to be more open. We believe in protecting the public interest and its fundamental rights, and protecting freedom and privacy in the digital age and beyond. This includes creative and innovative freedom, the right to a decent life, and open access to information. You can find out more online at https://www.pirateparty.ca .
Media Contacts: Ric Lim 204-808-8969 [email protected]
[1] - http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/07/23/Harper-Child-Benefit-Blitz/
[4] – http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~simpson/3360%20papers/BI%20ms%20Dec%2015%2003.pdf
[5] - http://www.budget.gc.ca/2014/docs/plan/ch4-2-eng.html
[6] – http://sociology.uwo.ca/cluster/en/documents/Research%20Briefs/PolicyBrief10.pdf
[7] – http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/wealth-equals-health-canadian-doctors-say-1.1178526
[CORRECTION 2022-07-28: The 2012-2013 Federal Budget projection is for Elderly and Children’s Benefits. The original release incorrectly have it as “Children Tax Credit”. Children’s Benefits in the budget consist of the non-taxable Canada Child Tax Benefit and the taxable old Universal Child Care Benefit.]
COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE
À livrer maintenant
DURABILITÉ ÉCONOMIQUE, MINCOME ET FAIRE DISPARAÎTRE L’ACHAT DE VOTE DES CRÉDITS D’IMPÔT
Winnipeg, Manitoba – 27 Juillet 2015 – C’est grand temps que le Canada poursuive un meilleur plan économique durable. Le temps dépensé à l’élection du plan universel pour la garde d’enfants démontre que le Canada pourrait être entrainé vers les déficits financiers continuels. Chaque élection, les politiciens annoncent de grandes dépenses qui influencent les votes du Canada.
Le Parti Pirate du Canada appel à abolir ces crédits d’impôt. Le premier ministre Stephen Harper lui-même était au courant du problème lorsqu’il a écrit sa thèse à l’université de Calgary. Il a débattu que la dépense pourrait conduire au déficit puisque les gouvernements planifie leur plans budgétaires ayant les élections en tête [1]. En éliminant les crédits d’impôt politiques, nous sauverons 23 milliards [2] à notre gouvernement. En combinant ceci avec les subventions aux entreprises inefficaces que nous avons dû payer (environ 648 milliards au cours de 30 ans [3]), cela nous fournirait suffisamment de fonds pour payer pour un programme Mincome. Les Canadiens peuvent avoir un programme Mincome à un niveau auquel il est assez suffisant pour complètement éliminer la pauvreté économique (une estimation d’un coût d’environ 50.3 milliards [4]), intégrant ceci avec les programmes Mincome déjà en cours (ex.: Les prestations aux personnes âgées, le crédit GST et le crédit d’impôt, qui était supposé s’élever à 53.3 milliards dans le budget fédéral [5] de 2012-2013 et qui n’a pas beaucoup changé d’année en année). Un programme de revenu garanti pourrait améliorer le système de protection sociale, qui est tout aussi désordonné et inefficace que les crédits d’impôt politiques. Le dauphin, le Manitoba a montré que les programme Mincome fonctionne [6] et fournit un grand effet positif côté socio-économique. Mincome fournira un stimulus constant des dépenses des consommateurs, et créera des emplois qu’aucune subvention d’entreprise publique n’a été en mesure de le faire.
« Mincome aura de grands effets positifs. Il entraînera des coûts de soins plus atténué puisque les personnes à faible revenu sont plus à risque d’avoir une maladie chronique coûteuse [7]. Il y aurait des économies important dans la bureaucratie gouvernementales, et une réduction des coûts d’application de la loi puisque le crime diminuerait en même temps que la pauvreté. Comme l’expérience Dauphin a montrer, le problème de la santé mental va aussi diminuer. Cela rendra les gens plus productifs et conduira à moins de cas de personnes qui atteignent le fond du baril, qui a souvent des conséquences désastreuses pour les communautés et la société en général », dit Ric Lim, chef du Parti Pirate du Canada. « Mincome va également nous préparer à l’inévitable disparition de certains emplois où l’automatisation et la robotique nous conduirait à des économies de coûts et une productivité accentué. Il va nous faire moins peur de l’avancement rapide des technologies. De plus, il fournit de la motivation au travail plutôt que de la dissuasion au travail sous le système de protection social actuel. Et le meilleur de tous, il peut être fait maintenant sans aucune augmentation d’impôt. Tout ce qui est requis est une décision politique.
Le parti Pirate est un parti politique fédéral qui croit en l’actualisation de notre démocratie afin qu’elle soit plus ouverte. Nous croyons en la protection de l’intérêt publique et ses droits fondamentaux, et protéger la liberté et la vie privée de l’ère numérique et bien plus. Cela inclue la créativité et l’innovation de la liberté, le droit à une vie décente, et le libre accès à l’information. Vous pouvez en savoir plus en ligne à https://www.pirateparty.ca
Contacte Média: [email protected]
[1] - http://tinyurl.com/qan83z9
[2] - http://tinyurl.com/olhn87t
[3] – http://tinyurl.com/nk4kpdo
[4] – http://tinyurl.com/phrvbf3
[5] - http://www.budget.gc.ca/2014/docs/plan/ch4-2-fra.html#
[6] – http://tinyurl.com/pck3xfm
[7] – http://tinyurl.com/nvktckq
The Pirate Party welcomes the Liberal and NDP proposed electoral reform, but believes it does not go far enough. We are cautiously optimistic, but wary of broken election promises including those related to electoral reform.
The Liberals have not only consistently voted with the government to chip away at our privacy and rights and freedom; they were also the first ones to introduce the lawful access legislation.
The unprincipled vote for C51 that allows our rights and freedoms to be taken away in a slanted “balancing” towards an ineffective and false sense of security also weighs heavily.
It does makes one wonder whether they will as easily give away our sovereignty in the secretive and farcical trade treaty, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), currently being pushed by special monopolistic interest groups in the U.S.
Giant Loopholes in the (Un)Fair Election Act Must Be Fixed
The Pirate Party believes the current electoral reform act, passed in 2015 by the Conservative party, and officially named the Fair Elections Act, needs to be repealed. It complicated the existing Canada Elections Act and increased bureaucracy and government cost so that the ruling party and financially strong parties could circumvent electoral regulations, which used to safeguard against unequal advantage and the influence of corporate and special interest money.
The amendment to the Canada Elections Act brought by Fair Elections Act allows corporations to influence the leadership election contest within a party and prevents their donations from being tracked or limited. All donations have always been regulated by the Elections Canada before now.
This could allow wealthy individuals or organizations to flood campaign marketing to influence the votes for the leadership election in each of the party. The position of the leader in a party is very important since he/she would become the Prime Minister if their party wins. With our system of Prime Minister and party leaders controlling and dictating how each MPs votes, it will be highly profitable for moneyed interests to support and install corrupt and sympathetic leaders.
Under the current Fair Election Act, parties with financially well-off supporters can run a very long campaign with virtually limitless spending. Third party advertising could be set up to allow limitless political ads beyond Elections Canada’s control before the writ is drop, bringing the ridiculously expensive and prolonged U.S. political campaign ads to Canada.
This is a threat to our democratic balance. We welcome the Liberals’ promise to fix pre-election spending, but believe the third-party advertising loophole and unfair election reform should be repealed entirely.
Equal Advertising Opportunities
All parties or local independent candidates should be given equal free advertising time on major networks, radio stations, public broadcasters, and other major communication and broadcast mediums. This will provide more democratic choices and prevent any party from having an advantage over the others. It will also prevent us from falling into U.S. style duopoly. Even a triopoly is very limiting and leads to complacency and playing only to party bases.
A Fair Deal for Independents
We want to ensure that independent candidates can compete on a more even playing field. Elections should be about which candidate has the platform most acceptable to the voters and not who has the rules stacked in their favour. This was made worse by passing of bill C-23, the (Un)Fair Election Act. Winning the race because you have an inherent advantage over your opponent is neither fair nor honourable.
We propose a new system by which money raised by independent candidates before the end of an election will instead be held in trust by Elections Canada until the next Federal election. If the person runs again as an independent candidate, the money that is held in trust will be returned to them for use in their campaign. If the person decides not to run at all or runs as a candidate under a party banner, the money held in trust will be forfeited to Elections Canada in whole. All interest accrued from money held by Elections Canada in the interim will belong to Elections Canada.
Restore Per-Vote Subsidy and Clarify Misinformation
We will seek to restore the per vote subsidy. There is no greater assurance of democracy than the per-vote subsidy, where a party which garnered a certain percentage of votes will get a subsidy in proportion to the number of votes they get. The smaller parties with very low percentage share of votes don’t get any. But parties that have growing support or a large base of constant supporters will get the subsidy, ensuring all parties have funds to promote and run their party. This prevents parties supported by financially well-off members from having too much of an unfair advantage. This mechanism ensures every Canadian will have the ability to challenge established parties, and moneyed interest does not rule the day like in the U.S.
Of course, it is those who have the wealthiest supporters and illicit corporate donations who claim that the per-vote subsidy hurts democracy. But the reality is that the subsidy is allocated only based on voting numbers. It does not discriminate whether that vote is from someone who can afford to donate more than the others. All votes are equal.
Another bit of misinformation that is being perpetuated is that the “fringe” and non-serious parties will be getting these funds. The reality is a certain percentage of votes have to be met before the parties will get any funds, and the amount paid out at lower margins will not be substantial. The amount they receive is proportional to the number of votes they get, and if a party doesn’t have at least 2% of all the votes, and 5% in local electoral districts, they get nothing. This is above the level of what has traditionally been referred to as fringe parties.
This is far more democratic than the loopholes introduced by the Fair Elections Act that will see the advantage tilted toward richer parties and be outside regulation of Elections Canada.
The subsidy will help a new party, which has growing support, to have the basic funds needed to run their party. Some of these expenses include paying auditors and other administrative tasks required by the Canada Elections act, and the effort and budget required to raise awareness and profiles of the party.
While those who have the most to gain from reducing party choices would like to see the per-vote subsidy forever vanished, The Pirate Party seeks to ensure the per-vote subsidy is restored to increase competition and improve our democratic choices. After all, political parties and campaigns work like open markets. More competition, which leads to more innovation and great ideas to attract supporters.
Mandatory Debates
We should have a mandatory number of debates which are independently organized, where no party can pick and choose which ones to attend. The debates will be scheduled ahead of time and all candidates will be required to be there, barring any legitimate emergency or personal reasons (i.e. The excuse that they are busy campaigning is an invalid excuse).
In these mandatory debates, all leaders of a registered party are allowed to attend, unlike now, when members of some parties are excluded, even if the party has seats in parliament. There should also be mandatory community debates that include all registered and confirmed candidates.
Prime Minister’s Accountability and Accessibility
The Prime Minister should be accessible to a free press at least monthly, not just during Question Period, where they often dodge questions by personally attacking opposing parties. At the required monthly press conferences, the press cannot be handpicked by the Prime Minister’s office or the ruling government.
Online Voting
We The Pirate Party opposes online voting due to security and anonymity concerns. Current polling booths allows for complete anonymity, free from coercion, which online voting cannot guarantee. As a party born of high technology, we see the threat to the integrity of our electoral system that online voting can bring.
We support using tabulating machines to speed up counting of votes in a new proportional representation system. However, use of tabulating machines must be open source, including both their hardware and software. After the initial results are tabulated, an immediate audit should be conducted for each electoral district at a level commensurate with the margin of winning. This will provide both accurate records and a much needed confidence boost to our electoral system.
It is our contention that the low voter turnout is not due to the absence of online voting, but due to the absence of real voices for the average citizen. It is also due to a government that is increasingly out of touch with the public’s interests. Though we disagree with mandatory voting, with or without it, we believe people should have the right to abstain or express their choice of none of the above.
Responsible Proportional System
We believe that the proportional system adopted should be fair to both rural and urban Canadians. There have been various attempts at electoral reform with half-hearted effort and hard-to-reach vote requirements, ensuring their failure.
We will not repeat the mistake of Ontario, whose premiere denied the voters crucial information about the proposed system. Voters who remain uninformed and with no knowledge of what is being proposed express desire for reform, but they are unable to vote for something they don’t understand.
The system that will be implemented should be selected after providing enough time for a very involved and transparent public consultation using our new online tool, which will also be used to make MPs more accountable and answerable for their broken election promises.
Increase Power and Independence of the Electoral Commissioner
The new Elections Act moved the electoral commissioner out of the jurisdiction of Elections Canada and into the partisan Ministry of Justice.
The commissioner answering to a partisanly appointed body also compromises its independence and ability to prosecute a ruling party. The commissioner also cannot compel witnesses to co-operate, thereby compromising their ability to go after evidence and information needed to investigate cases of electoral fraud, such as those from last General Elections. To increase power to prosecute electoral fraud, which is vital to preserving the trust and integrity of our electoral process, we will:
Create Online Tools to Keep MPs Accountable
What would Trudeau or Muclair do to assure us that they won’t follow the same path as previous leaders? Canada has a long history of broken promises in national election cycles. The Pirate Party proposes a tool to mitigate this problem of broken election promises and lack of transparency and accountability. We propose establishing a system of Constituents-Representative-Interaction-System (CRIS) to ensure MPs can:
The online tool and forum will be administered by a new off-election division of Elections Canada to ensure it is non-partisan, and to authenticate access while protecting the privacy and anonymity of online forum participants.
Elections Canada could also use this to administer a non-binding online poll on various bills before the parliament to show constituent’s sentiments and for MP to respond, and to provide information to ensure their constituents who are interested can get as much information as is necessary to make an informed decision as if they are voting for the bill themselves.
We should explore the possibility of using the online tool for polling to recall an MP. A reasonable threshold could be established. For instance, we could require that for an online recall poll to lead to an actual recall by-election, more than 50% of the constituents must have voted. Among those who have voted, 55% must support recalling their MP.
There will be a cooling period of three weeks for the MP to respond to the concerns and for cooler heads to prevail. After the cool-off period, another online poll could be held, and if a similar benchmark was reached, a recall by election would be held in that electoral district.
While we oppose online voting in a binding general election or by-election, the non-binding recall poll is a pretty safe and inexpensive way to gauge opposition against an MP who might be failing their constituents miserably. A binding recall election in the form of traditional by-election would only follow after clear signs of unwavering wide discontent were demonstrated. This would save money and prevent trivial recall elections.
Such a system would motivate MPs to be more forthcoming with their constituents. The age of “Trust me, I know more than you do,” should be replaced with a more transparent exchange of knowledge. An MP should take more responsibility if their constituents are constantly “misinformed”. This tool would provide more transparency and sharing of information between an MP and their constituents.