Pirate Party of Canada hooks over 3,000 votes in first general election

The 2011 general election was the first for the Pirate Party of Canada, which only became a registered political party last year.

This fledgling party supports net neutrality, open government, and copyright reform that's in favour of artists and consumers.

It fielded 10 candidates, including party leader Mikkel Paulson in Edmonton Centre, in the May 2 federal election.

How did the party do?

With 71,472 of 71,513 polls reporting across the country, Pirates had hooked a total of 3,198 votes.

In B.C.'s Lower Mainland, Pirate candidate Travis McCrea garnered 192 votes to place seventh in a field of eight in the hotly contested riding of Vancouver Centre.

Langley candidate Craig Nobbs finished last in a field of five, with 355 votes.

The Pirate party previously ran a candidate in the 2010 Winnipeg North byelection.

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.

Comments

10 Comments

Daryl Christensen

May 3, 2011 at 1:45am

Hi. I'm a member of that party. Not to nitpick but they ran 13 candidates.

Stephen Hui

May 3, 2011 at 8:30am

Hi Daryl: The party website lists 10 candidates and a press release sent out today mentions there were 10 candidates.

Richard Suchenwirth

May 5, 2011 at 3:22pm

Hi,
I'm a member of that party too, although in Germany. We had regional elections (from Hamburg to Baden-Wí¼rttemberg) some weeks ago, and Pirates got between 1.6% and 2.1% of the votes (not enough for a 5% threshold). In local elections in Hesse state, though, 31 pirate candidates were elected into assemblies.
In other elections, also in the last few weeks, pirates made slightly over 0.5% in Zurich (Switzerland) and Finland, which is even more frustrating.
Could you tell us the percentages of valid votes reached in Canada, just for comparison?

RealityCheck

May 6, 2011 at 7:16am

Goes to show that the vast majority of Canadians don't support thieves.

dave black

May 6, 2011 at 10:05am

@RealityCheck.

If you only knew how ignorant you sound...

gregb

May 7, 2011 at 10:48am

I was the agent for one of the Canadian candidates - in the 10 ridings we were in we got about 0.6 % of the vote, ranging between 0.3 and 1.0 %.

glen p robbins

Jan 3, 2012 at 4:10pm

I'd like to run to be leader of the Pirates - how is this accomplished?

JohnF.

Jun 23, 2012 at 6:56pm

Damn if only I knew this before I would of went out to vote for sure, 2015 you got my vote 100%!

Hazlit

Jun 25, 2012 at 3:18pm

I prefer the one called the Sex Party.

foxxe.wilder@gmail.com

Jun 26, 2012 at 10:25am

RealityCheck

Dude are you kidding me? Don't tell me you've never noticed Steven Harper got in TWICE so far? Sure Canadians support thieves, the conservatives are still here!