We need to move forward, and realize that the world isn’t as scary as people in power want us to believe it is. The simple fact is that the more fear that a government creates within it’s citizens, the more motivated they are to support them. Self preservation will always be an issue that brings a person to the polls, and you can count on the fact that the people in power know that.

The Internet is not some great abyss that is only used by criminals to do horrible things, terrorists have no strong interest in hurting Canadians (outside of the abuses that were carried out under the current Prime Minister), and the big pushers of child pornography are not sharing their collections using means that would be detectable by these methods. The government can make a nice shiny graphic to show you the dangers of the world but the dangers are not real. Crime is down in Canada, more people use machetes for murder than long guns, and we have a pretty high population happiness.

I have accepted the nomination by my party to run for Member of Parliament (MP) in the Vancouver Centre riding. I am running on a platform that I do not believe has ever been done before: I am building a system which will take the words of my constituents (if elected), and allow them to use Reddit style voting to determine what I vote and what I present and say to the floor of parliament.

There are a few sides to this coin (or die?), because I of course have my own platforms too. In addition to my core platforms of:

• End any attempt to put U.S. “security” forces within Canadian borders and encourage Canadian Customs and Border Services Agency to be more open about their search / seizure practices.
• Join the IWC as an anti-whaling nation and let the rest of the world know that we will not tollerate facades of “research” mask commercial whaling.
• Increase spending on rural communications projects bringing higher speeds of internet at an affordable rate to people in rural communities.
• Advocate for all government agencies to use free, open source software to reduce government expenditures on purchases and overall maintenance of the computer networks
• Implement an inexpensive internet forum and polling website where all of Vancouver Centre’s constituents can continue to make their voices heard in Ottawa after the federal election

I also promise to uphold the Pirate Parties platforms too:

• Copyright: Reinforce and protect fair dealing, decriminalize non-commercial file sharing, allow content creators to dedicate material to the public domain, and reform crown copyright to ensure open access to Canadians
• Patent: Reduce terms to 5 years, require a higher standard of originality, and reallocate funds saved in health care due to patent reform to public pharmaceutical research
• Privacy: Enforce the same privacy laws on electronic communication as the traditional postal service, strengthen the powers of Privacy Commissioner, and fight bills and regulation that violate Canadians’ right to personal privacy
• Net Neutrality: Reform the CRTC to prevent abuses, fund undersea cables to Europe and Asia rather than relying on American bandwidth, and ensure unfettered access to telecom infrastructure for independent service providers
• Open Government: Create a combined approach of proactive release of information to the public while easing access by request, expedite freedom of information requests and reduce costs by sharing information digitally, lower or eliminate the cost of filing of FOI requests, strengthen the PSIC, and establish an anonymous online dropbox system
• Whistleblowers & Free Press: Introduce legislation to protect journalists and whistleblowers
• Charter Rights: Stand up against violations of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, especially freedom of expression and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure

There will be no surprises though. If a topic doesn’t fall under those topics, then the decision will go to the will of the people in the riding. There is no point, in our age of technology, to vote for one party that thinks they have the answers to everything, people in different areas think differently and before there was no one party that could make the largest amount of people happy while also keeping true to its core values. I feel that in the future this is how all parties will be: A couple core platforms and then calling upon the voter to decide the rest.
Another side to the coin is the fear that the minority will be silenced by having a majority having the ability to downvote ideas that run contrary to their own views. There are a few things we will be doing to decrease the chance of this happening:

• Myself and helpers will be “moderating” the board, not deleting anything (unless its obvious spam) but looking through posts and finding ones that have been down voted by the community… and tracking the conversations based on that. It’s not always the most upvoted comment that I would bring to the floor of parliament, I would use it as a chance to also bring an alternative view-point (and make sure it was clear to the floor that it was not my own thought, but just A thought that had been brought up.
• We have been thinking about the possibility to limit the number of downvotes a person can make in a day/week/month to ensure that no person can just downvote every opinion they don’t like, and only downvote ideas that they feel are genuinely flawed or, even better, are just comments that are not productive to the discussion.
• Adding phone suggestions and an email box that actually gets checked should also allow people who do not want to use the website, or are trying to use the website and keep having their comments downvoted a forum to speak directly to my team / me.

Another advantage is that I am always available, even if I was elected MP I would leave a published phone number and email address (though the number may ring to a voicemail or have an automated system) and reply as frequently as possible. I would also hold weekly IRC meetings so everyone who wanted a chance to say something could log-in and participate.

Are you ready for the politics you always thought were going to be in the future? 2011… that’s future enough for me :)

I know its seems as though when I travel internationally, I always am posting about some horrible experience that has happened to me. Here is what happened when I took AMTRAK from Seattle to Vancouver today:

I bought a business class ticket to ride the train from Seattle, Washington USA to Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. When I arrived at King Street Station was was made aware that there was a mudslide on the train tracks and they were going to have to change us over to a bus. No big deal, I asked about getting compensated for the difference in fare and the ticket agent told me to call customer service after the trip.

I arrive at the border security check point and was asked for my paperwork, then the Canadian Boarder Services officer asked me some personal questions about why I was in the United States. I told him that the only answers I would be willing to provide were the answers that were what were on my sheet. I was asked to step aside and they were going to X-Ray my bags, I had already anticipated this so I was at the front of the line for customs. A nice gentleman from CBS asked me some questions, I told him that I was not going to answer any question not on the paperwork. He explained to me what the purpose of his job was, and I informed him that I knew of why he asks what he asked, but that I would assert my rights under the Canadian Charter to remain silent. The officer was actually really cool, and we talked while he was scanning my bags and of course he was trying to sneak in questions here and there and I would re-affirm that I would not answer any questions.

By the time that most of the questions were asked everyone was on board the bus ready to go, and the conductor and attendant lady were talking and looking at me. CBS went to this back room to discuss things and I was sitting by myself, so I told the attendant lady that there was an issue and that it wouldn’t be much longer. She was upset and kept going into the CBS room asking them how long it was going to take, but I could see she was actually upset at ME.

Then CBS came back out and asked me to turn on my computer, thats when I asked to see their authority to actually examine the contents of my hard drive (opposed to just looking at my computer which was turned off — side note: My laptops hard drive is dead and I am running a live disk, and I told them this as well). They eventually met my request with enough information that I felt it was appropriate for them to look through my laptop and phone (though I do want to get more information on this).. and again, I didn’t want to hold up the bus too much so I just told them fine, and I also answered some of their more basic questions just to speed up the process.

When CBS went back to talking amongst their selves, the lady told me that if it was going to take any longer she was just going to leave me there and I could find another bus. I asked her when the next bus would come through (it was 12:00PM when this took place), and she said she didn’t know but it would probably be tonight (and thats if they ran a bus that night, because they were talking about running the train on the night trip). I explained to her that things were going as fast as they could, but I wasn’t going to sacrifice my safety or rights to make her happy. She said that there was a chance that they wouldn’t let me into the country anyway, to which I replied “I am a Canadian citizen, I cannot be denied re-entry into Canada” and she said “they can do whatever they want!”. I just laughed and explained that I knew the law a little better then she did, and that there was no way I could be denied re-entry — the only possible option would be for me to be arrested.

When the CBS agents came to talk to me again, I told them “look I am sorry this has caused issues, I am morally and legally against answering questions without a lawyer present, but I don’t want to inconvenience the bus riders, and they said they were going to leave without me — just let me answer whatever you want so we can go”. Thats when the CBS manager (badge number 11233 – No kidding) told me (paraphrased) “I already told her she can’t leave until you are on board, take your time if you feel like a question is uncomfortable it’s within your rights to not answer”. I still tried to cooperate a bit more, only answering the most basic questions “Yes I lived in Alaska” “My address is written down as Teacher Housing because thats where I was, there was no street addresses there”. Again, CBS is a million times better than US Border Patrol and they understood that I wasn’t up to anything bad, but that I was just protecting myself.

I met with the CBS agents one more time, and they basically said all is good, and we were going over our final procedures to let me go on my way and the AMTRAK lady barges in again and says “this bus is late and we need to have a reason, so I want your name and these agents wont give it to me”. I wrote it down and then then CBS and I were talking about personal privacy and stuff (I saw that they had pulled out my Pirate Party Canada membership card, and I wanted to clarify the reason for them to single that card out of my wallet rather than the 20 other cards I have, and CBS officer told me that he was just interested in the party, and was looking through the platforms), he was talking about how CBS had policies in place to protect personal privacy too and thats why he wouldn’t give her my name even though I was on her bus. The CBS agent also told me that he had informed the AMTRAK lady that it was not my fault that I was being questioned and that it actually happens routinely. I said “she seems cranky to me” and he agreed, ha!

They finally let me go and the CBS agent apologized to the AMTRAK lady and she told him “Oh you don’t have to be sorry, it wasn’t YOUR fault.” looking at me. I got on the bus and we arrived 40 minutes late, but my rights are still intact (for the most part, the looking through my cell phone and laptop still doesn’t sit well with me) — and everyone made their connections. AMTRAK is a corporation owned by the United States Government just like NASA and USPS, you would hope that a company like that would be able to respect basic things like “rights” but it was simply not the case in this story. Then again, thats probably why they have gone bankrupt so many times and had to be bought out by the Government in the first place!