Langley 2015

From Pirate Party of Canada

Candidate's Application

Name: Craig Nobbs Province: British Columbia Riding: Langley

Party Involvement:

I have been part of the PPCA since around October 2009. When I joined I was highly active in the forums and attended meetings when my work schedule didn't conflict. I've quieted down some in the forums since I first joined, however, my resolve and dedication to the party and its ideals have not changed. Recently, I ran as the PPCA Federal Candidate for the Langley BC riding in the last General Federal Election.

Political Experience:

Having run in the last General Federal Election, I gained some great experience in debating with other candidates. The majority of the debates had preplanned questions that the candidates were given ahead of time so that we could best prepare our answers, although there were times when the floor was opened to unscripted questions. I found the unscripted questions to be the best test of a candidate and their gumption.

I also met the other candidates who all were very nice towards each other. I got to witness what other candidates will do to win an election and was able to see how each candidate represented themselves between different events. All in all, I have to say that some of the best times during the election were the actual debates. I wish there had been more of them.

Additionally, I ran for a councilor seat for the Township of Langley municipality when I was 19, but was unsuccessful.

Conflicts of Interest:

I do not believe that I am in conflict of interest in any area. I am not part of any other organizations.

Community Involvement:

I am not involved in my local community by way of volunteering or active in any sort of public forum at the moment.

My background is what I would consider mostly typical as a person growing up in Langley. I have been able to see both sides of the "corporate vs. worker" debate. I would say that I have several people who I surround myself with that helps me see both sides of that debate which means that I sit near the middle of many topics of interest to the community. I believe that my ability to talk openly, honestly, and logically would make me of particular interest to many people.

I also stay abridged of a lot of local news, mostly related to the Langley's and the current news that affects them. I do keep tabs on the neighbouring municipalities, however, not nearly as much as I do for the Langley's.

As there are just under 4 years until the next General Federal Election, I will be putting my name out into the public spotlight whenever I find an opportunity to do so.

Platform:

I'm going to summarize most of these as there are a lot of "hot button" issues. Feel free to ask for clarification.

Copyright Reform: I believe copyright should be limited in its length. Personally, I'm of the sound mind that it should be 15-20 years from date of initial publishing/release for audio, written, photographic, and painted works. The copyright protection would cover reproduction for commercial gain prohibitions, however, copies for educational and backup purposes, etc. would be allowed and protected with little restriction and in certain cases, no restriction. For content that has to do with computers (non fiction such as manuals or educational books, software, hardware, programming, etc.) I believe that the copyright should be 5 years.

Trademark Reform: When a company can trademark a colour, a letter, a single common and quasi-common words, or commonly used phrases, you know something is wrong. Although trademarks tend to hinder companies significantly less than copyright and patents, reform is needed to ensure that trademarks are not given simply because they were applied for. Some common sense needs to be added to the process.

Patent Reform: Computer software, natural occurring plants/vitamins/etc., anything related to human genome/DNA, all derivatives of the aforementioned, and everything that is within a relaxed reason to improve upon an existing patent should not be able to be patented.

Health care: I believe that allowing a very limited amount of privatized day surgery and diagnostic clinics would allow the health care system be able to offload a minor amount of patient care to those willing to pay for the costs. I do not believe that it should be subsidized in any fashion nor be given any public money for operations. I do believe that in cases where having a patient wait could cause further harm or elevated risk of death, then a doctor could, (accompanied with a second opinion) have a patient referred to a private clinic, paid for by medicare and being transparent to the patient. It would be predetermined that the fee paid to the private clinic be inline with the costs of doing the same procedure in the public facility.

I also believe that there is so much wanton waste in the medical system, that there needs to be more accountability from the staffing in hospitals along with (more) random audits of doctors practices to ensure that billing fraud is kept to a minimum.

Marijuana: I will emphatically state that I have never, not even once smoked a joint, taken a hit, etc. In spite of this, I am an avid supporter of legalizing Marijuana. The amount of money that goes into the criminal justice system to deal with this could best be spent elsewhere and there are many police and RCMP officers who agree.

I suggest that we treat Marijuana as we do cigarettes. Place it under those same laws and allow it to be "manufactured" for resale. It would be required of manufacturers that absolutely no additives were added to the Marijuana (like adding Nicotine to make it addictive) and that it be sold as a pure product in either tins or as pre-rolled joints. Additionally, a requirement of legalizing Marijuana would be to treat it like alcohol when it comes to the operation of vehicles or machinery. It would be illegal to smoke around anyone under the age of majority (18). Of course, there would have to be a noninvasive (as in not drawing blood) way to test drivers for this.

That being said, it would be perfectly legal for someone to grow some predetermined number of plants themselves, solely for their personal use, which would not be taxed.

Privacy: I am a strong proponent of an individuals right to privacy. I do not support that same level of privacy for corporations although, corporations should have a right to privacy so long as health, safety, and security are not affected at all by that company's privacy.

Open Government: I believe that all aspects of the government should be open, except in RARE case where certain information would hurt the sovereignty or safety of Canada and/or its Citizens. I believe that everything related to the government should be open and freely available and not just by request or FOIs, but having the most prevalent information proactively published and available.

Government Systems: This is certainly not a hot topic for the vast majority of Canadians, however it is something that I believe that is important. I believe that all branches of the government should use an open source operating system such as Linux. Also and equally important is that as a way to thank those who have brought said open source software, that several full time position programmers should be hired to contribute to the open source community.

Gay and Lesbian Rights: Love is a matter for the heart to sort out, not some bureaucrat. When two people love each other, why does it matter if they have different or the same sexual organs? In the last 50 years alone of North American history, we had this same fight for "Blacks" and "Whites" to be able to marry.

I will admit that I used to sit on the opposing side of this issue. However, I started to imagine what it would feel like if some other persons belief stood in the way of me and my wife. How would I feel if she was sick and in hospital and told that I wasn't family and couldn't see her, but our children could? How would I feel if she died and I couldn't be there with her to tell her that it was alright and to be with her in her final moments of life? Now tell me that you would stand there and split hairs if that were you.

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Director's Evaluation

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Official Agent Information

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Official Auditor Information

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Event Dates & Information

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Collateral and Advertising Materials

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Volunteer List

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Voting Results

This section currently holds formatted sample results. Update as available.

2011 Federal Election Results
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
Liberal	David McGuinty	25,963	44.01	-5.89	$79394.78
Conservative	Elie Salibi	19,634	33.28	-0.09	$77348.77
NDP	James McLaren	10,712	18.16	+9.71	Not Recorded
Green	Mick Kitor	1,787	3.03	-3.74	$1674.65
Progressive Canadian	Al Gullon	513	0.87	-0.19	$0
Pirate Party	Mike Bleskie	382	0.65	n.a.	$498.90
Total valid votes		58,991	100.00
Difference
Total rejected ballots		279	0.47	-0.12
Turnout		59,270	69.11%
Liberal hold