NOSIR: Strategic Voting: The Poison in Canada's Democracy
And how to democratically protest the status-quo
“I don’t like any of the big parties but what if the Conservatives/Liberal win?? At least for this high stakes election we should surely go for the lesser evil, right?” How many times have you heard that line of thinking? How often is it said every election? How many times have you yourself considered it? I know I’ve asked it to myself countless times this election, and my conclusion?
Strategic voting is the poison in our democratic blood. It undermines the very foundations of Canada’s promise for freedom and political representation, and the longer this remains the case, the deeper our disappointments, frustrations, and despair will grow. After all, strategic voting is precisely how countries end up with two party system, just look at our neighbours to the south, whose only choices last election were self-defeating Democrats and self-destructive Republicans. Is this the future we want for Canada?
The bigger issue however is that it breaks trust in our democracy and institutions. Are our politicians truly held accountable if they’re constantly rewarded for doing little more than being “not the other guy”? I don’t think so. Can we expect real change if we keep voting for the same parties that got us here in the first place? I don’t think so. Will the major parties ever truly represent us if they’re comfortable in their strategically high towers? I don’t think so. So what is the natural outcome of this situation then? Well, this graph from a 2024 OECD survey on Canadians’ trust in institutions sums it up quite well. Our political parties rank dead last and it’s not even close.
Two of their notes on the graph are even more condemning:
Canadians who feel that the current political system does not let people like them have a say tend to trust the federal government 58 percentage points less than those who feel they have political voice. This trust gap is larger than the 47 percentage points gap on average across OECD countries.
The Canadian trust gaps between older and younger people and between those with and without financial concerns are below the OECD average
It indicates that the share of younger people with more unstable finances who trust our political parties is around 20%, and that the longer our current political system remains unrepresentative the lower our trust in government sinks. What happens then? I worry about that a lot actually, but that’s a story for a different day.
So far though, this has been a case for electoral reform more than anything, something I would love to see happen of course, but until then what can we do outside of strategic voting and rewarding the system? The response “My vote doesn’t matter anyway, why even vote?” is a common sentiment and one I struggled with too, so are we stuck?
How To Democratically Protest
Sure, your vote alone doesn’t matter, but you are not alone. You have at least myself and if both of us are here, then surely there’s at least a million more out there across Canada. So how can we protest this system, is not voting at all the right move?
Spoilers: No, it is not. The better move is to vote against the system as a whole.
Whenever I wonder how many of us has been so frustrated at the state of our politics and our powerlessness against it that we considered sitting out the election, I just look at the election results for 2021 where the Liberals received 32.62% of the popular vote, the Conservatives received 33.74%, the NDP 17.82%. The real winner however were those who did not vote at 37.4%. How many of them are just like us, people who don’t like any of the options and would rather not vote strategically, I don’t know. And I don’t know because even if it is, it looks like apathy a little too much and that’s the problem with not voting at all.
To the major politicians and to other frustrated voters, there is no way to tell the difference. Now apathy towards democracy is also a condemnation of the system but it can be hand-waved away as individuals being individuals. It leaves too much up to interpretation. On the other hand, if politicians and frustrated voters see the election results show an uptick in turnout and in spoiled, small party, or independent ballots instead though, then the message becomes much clearer with no arguing out of it. To them, we will show that we reject the status quo AND would rather anyone else. To the frustrated voters, it will be proof that they're not alone. To aspiring parties, it will be an indication that current options are unsatisfying to politically engaged citizens. And to our politicians, the winner will no longer be able to point at the results and claim "I won x% of the popular vote" to justify their mandate because the lower the x the worse they look.
This is what I intend to do this election, I will look at all minor candidates outside the Liberals/Conservatives/NDP and vote for the one I align with the most, and if I don’t like any of the minor candidates either, I’ll settle for striking out all names on the ballot.
I will not tell you who to vote for, but I will urge you though to stop voting strategically and to start voting for something you can believe in.
- Amr
I would usually willingly vote for either the Liberal or NPD (not the Bloc) as they are most aligned with my beliefs. Unfortunately, the vote on the right is NOT split so the issue is this: splitting the centre/left vote into 2 or 3 parties would constantly allow the Conservatives to be elected with only 37-38% of the votes. Those who don't vote are a plague upon democracy (I don't care who they'd be most inclined to vote for out of ignorance or lack of interest, they should voting) and one possible solution is to make voting mandatory as in Australia.
There is nothing wrong with strategic voting in my opinion - people generally wouldn't do that if they REALLY disagreed with the policies of the party they are strategically voting for.
The NDP is a victim of strategic voting as much as anyone (although not on necessarily on the provincial level), so it seems a bit weird to punish them along with the Liberals and Conservatives. Neither has the federal NDP had a chance to disappoint us the way the other two have.