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A 25-year-old Winnipeg businessman is the first Pirate Party of Canada candidate to run for federal election.
Jeff Coleman, a former ESL teacher who owns a design and 3-D company, is running in the upcoming federal by-election on November 29 in Winnipeg North.
His plan: to take to the streets of his home riding to engage voters in issues that surround the digital age.
Coleman plans to campaign on his party’s key principles: confidentiality on the internet, intellectual copyright and patent law reform, keeping the internet democratic and free and using the web to make government practices and information available to the public.
But he’ll also be adding to his platform some local issues, determined by his constituents through Twitter and Facebook.
It’s all part of the party’s campaign model to bring a platform of information reform coupled with “a crowdsourced listening campaign” which is designed to identify the distinct needs of each riding.
“The Pirate Party is focused on issues of the information age,” Coleman said in an interview with the Star.
“Copyright and patent laws aren’t well designed for a new era. They are designed to protect old business models. We think copyright and patent laws are blocking opportunities and stifling creativity.”
Coleman also said that his party wants to keep the Internet democratic and make it free for everyone, objecting to the fact that some content providers want to restrict where people can go on the web and provide different levels of service based on who pays them money.
Another concern for him and other members of the party is privacy. “We need to address privacy online and who’s collecting what information about whom and why they’re doing it.”
In a statement on the website of the Pirate Party of Canada, Coleman said that “laws enforcing tight-fisted control over information are ineffective at meeting the needs of either businesses or individuals, much less balancing between them when their interests are at odds or helping to improve our culture in general.”
The Pirate Party of Canada, which became an official party here in April, 2010, has its roots in a European movement which began in Sweden in 2006. Since it was launched four years ago it has had some success electing two representatives from Sweden to the European Parliament.
“I’m going to be running a listening campaign, asking people in the riding to speak up and say what their priorities are,” he said.
Coleman remains determined to make inroads in his riding which has traditionally been represented by either the NDP or the Liberals.
The riding was held by New Democrat Judy Wasylycia-Leis until last spring, when she stepped down to run for Winnipeg mayor.
He admits the issues he hopes to win voters over with are fairly esoteric, but believes that “people are ready for a party that is ready to do politics kind of differently.”
The businessman has lived in Winnipeg for five years, the last three in Winnipeg North. He grew up in Manitoba and East Africa where his parents worked for an international non-profit in Ethiopia.
While he has no formal political experience, Coleman has volunteered in his local community association and been involved in a project to load used business computers with open source software and distribute them to low income and new immigrant families. He also heads the Manitoba Chapter of Fair Copyright for Canada.
“Our party is rapidly growing,” he said of the Pirate Party of Canada which he says now has over 2,000 members.
“We’ve doubled our membership in the past two years. When I go door to door, I introduce myself, tell them where I live and what’s important to me. I spend a lot more time listening than talking.”
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