Noticeably, there were no Pirates in the federal leaders’ debate. Not that anyone, even the Pirates themselves, objected.
That’s because the Pirate Party of Canada isn’t aiming to form the government.
In its first-ever general election, the party is running only a handful of candidates in five provinces. It doesn’t have any kind of comprehensive platform – no plan for health care, pensions, or mega-prisons.
But unlike the other fringe parties (e.g., the Christian Heritage Party of Canada, the Rhinoceros party, the Libertarians), the Pirates are vital in this election. And in Toronto, where they’re not running a single candidate, they’re sorely missed.
The party’s sole cause is the internet, its whole ideology freedom of information. The internet represents access to information, and, as the adage goes, information is power. So the Pirates intend to protect that resource.
“We don’t sit down and say, ‘What can we say that will get us elected?’ That idea sickens me,” says Mikkel Paulson, the leader of the Pirate party and a candidate in Edmonton Centre. “We are a straightforward issue-based party, not a catch-all party.”
That’s the fundamental difference between the arriviste Pirates and more established political machines.
Take, for instance, the Greens, who were once a similar single-issue party. “That’s a fairly good contrast,” the 23-year-old web developer tells me. “They’ve chosen to build a comprehensive platform. We do not.”
That strategy is working. In a by-election in Winnipeg in 2010, the Pirate party came within 20 votes of surpassing the Greens.
(Despite the apparent rivalry, Paulson seems to admire the Green party. “They’ve had a significant effect on public policy though they’ve never been elected,” he says.)
But success, in the short term anyway, is less about overpowering the Greens or any other party than it is about stopping a series of Conservative anti-privacy bills.
Bills C-50, C-51 and C-52, requiring telecoms to keep records of their customers’ internet and phone use for 90 days, will be passed if the Conservatives achieve a majority, Paulson warns.
In response, the Pirates have set up their own virtual private network (VPN), which allows secure communication outside the Conservatives’ potential reach. “Any sort of far-reaching invasion of privacy needs to be, in our opinion, amended or defeated,” says Paulson.
The Pirate party first emerged in Sweden in 2006 as the Piratpartiet. Its name is a play on so-called internet piracy, since it was launched to combat reactionary copyright and patent laws. It has expanded its reach to all issues related to the internet.
It’s now the third-largest party in Sweden and enjoys a worldwide following.
It’s curious, given that popularity, that the closest Pirate candidate to Toronto is in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Canada is mired in dreadful copyright reform deadlock. There are constant encroachments on our free and open internet in the form of throttling and more usage based billing. And the Conservative threat to monitor personal data looms large.
With all that at stake, we could use a Pirate or two in debates, in Toronto and in government.
To learn more, attend the Other Party Discussion, a debate featuring the Pirate party and 11 other fringe parties on Saturday (April 23) from 2 to 5 pm, in room G162, OISE Auditorium (252 Bloor West).
joshuae@nowtoronto.com
