Who stands to lose if the Pirate Party decides to invade our shores? You would think they would skim votes off the hapless NDP, but at the same time, Michael Geist himself has speculated that copyright reform brought out many traditional non-voters during the 2008 election, and there is even a libertarian slice of the Conservative Party that might be swayed by their message.
While it's highly unlikely the Pirates would be able to win a seat in the House of Commons anytime soon, they might well – like the Green Party – be able to effect some degree of policy change from outside of that venue.
The editors changed "perennially hapless NDP" to just "hapless NDP", but whatever. Still no money involved, though when you read in its new context, the piece just oozes credibility. Interesting note from the comments of my original post:
They will have about as much effect as the marijuana party did, which, it should be stated, was a lot. The Liberals took up decrim in 2003 partly because they were seeping so many votes to the marijuana party. Nowadays, most parties support marijuana decrim and the party has little reason to exist any more. Parties can be an amazingly powerful pressure groups to influence mainstream parties. So yes, a Pirate Party is a good idea even if it stands no chance of picking up a seat.
