The Party for Accountability, Competency and Transparency (, abbreviated as PACT), formerly the Online Party of Canada (, abbreviated as OPC), was a Canadian website and federally registered political party founded in October 2010. The party was founded by Michael Nicula of Toronto.Abma, Derek. "Political party based on the web: Plans online polls to make decisions ", Postmedia News. Reprinted in Windsor Star, October 23, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2011."Un Torontois souhaite créer un nouveau parti fédéral", Le Journal de Québec. October 3, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2011. The party was deregistered by Elections Canada on July 31, 2016.
Founding and governing principles The Party for Accountability, Competency and Transparency was a non-partisan political party founded on the principles of participatory e-democracy where members voted directly on specific issues via the party website and, in return, party officials (candidates) must support the majority position on every issue, regardless of their personal position.
To ensure accountability, all PACT representatives wrote up their own Promissory Letter of Resignation before being eligible to run for office. Any PACT representative who votes against the will of the majority could be asked to resign.
Political platform
The Party for Accountability, Competency and Transparency did not have a set agenda. The political platform was a compilation of issue positions from the OPC website, voted from members and grouped by issue category, e.g., economic, healthcare, environment, etc. The key aspect of the platform is the importance given to certain categories; however, particular issues and respective positions are determined solely based on members’ votes.
Membership Unlike most recognized political parties, all eligible voters in Canada, including members of other federal political parties, are allowed and strongly encouraged to become members of PACT in order to cast votes and comment on issues. In this sense, PACT is more like to a virtual House of Commons of Canada, representing all political stripes, rather than a traditional political party.
To ensure that each voting citizen only casts a single vote on each issue, only members' votes count toward the official party position and members are only authenticated once a signed paper form, recognized by Elections Canada, is submitted to the PACT. Through this process, every PACT member and their respective electoral district as voting citizens is verifiable through the National Register of Electors, similar to the voter identification process followed by Elections Canada during Federal Elections.
Election results + Results by election Election Candidates # of votes % vote % vote in contested ridings 2015 general election 1 http://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=can&dir=cand/lst&document=index&lang=e Elections Canada, List of Confirmed Candidates. Accessed October 20, 2015 90 0.001% 0.165% http://enr.elections.ca/ElectoralDistricts.aspx?lang=e Elections Canada Electoral District, 2015. Accessed October 20, 2015.
+ Results by ridingElectionRidingCandidate's NameVotes%Rank 2012 by-election Durham Michael Nicula 132 0.39 6/62013 by-election Toronto Centre Michael Nicula 43 0.12 10/112015 general election Spadina—Fort York Michael Nicula 90 0.17% 5/6 http://enr.elections.ca/ElectoralDistricts.aspx?lang=e Elections Canada, Spadina-Fort York 2015 results. Accessed October 20, 2015.
See also
Direct democracy E-democracy Pirate Party of Canada
References
External links
Party for Accountability, Competency and Transparency - Canadian Political Parties and Political Interest Groups - Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries Online Party of Canada – Canadian Political Parties and Political Interest Groups – Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries