A New Brunswick man is vying to lead the Pirate Party, one of Canada’s newest political parties.
James Wilson has served as interim leader since the fall and wants to take the post permanently.
Wilson plans to run for the party in New Brunswick’s Fundy-Royal riding during the next election. He’s one of six candidates the party says it has to run in 2015.
The Pirate Party, like other similarly named groups around the world, wants to loosen copyright laws so that digital music, movies and other content can be shared for free more easily.
"Companies had labelled people who infringe on copyright as pirates, and we figured since we were going to reform copyright law, we were going to get called pirates anyway, so we were going to adopt the term and make it our own,” Wilson said.
The party also favours stricter online privacy and better access to broadband internet.
Digital content expert David Shipley said hanging a party largely around online issues may not reap success on the ballots.
"How much people decide where they're going to place their vote based on their entertainment preferences, I'm not sure,” he said.
Shipley works as an analyst at the University of New Brunswick's Information Technology Services department.
Broader Pirate platform coming
The party says it is developing a “more comprehensive” platform.
Wilson became interim leader in October. At the time, he wrote that he lives in Alberta, but is from New Brunswick.
“I never aspired to be the leader of the party. I let my nomination stand during the last leadership election due to worries there were not enough candidates running rather than any great desire to lead,” he wrote at the time.
The party hopes to have the new leader in place by 2015. The party was established in 2009.