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.
Perhaps then the major parties will finally pass some form of electoral reform that will prevent any party from winning with 37% of the vote. (Just ranked ballot would be a good start.)
My critique of strategic voting is particularly aimed at people who find that none of the major parties align with their beliefs, but still choose one of them in the elections anyways, or worse yet give up because of it.
I believe the sooner we can get the system reformed and more people engaged, the sooner we will break out of our poralization spiral and establish the type of dynamic democracy which solves problems.
There are nine candidates running in my riding. Either you generally agree with one, or more, start your own party, or don't vote at all. Your opinion doesn't hold water.
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.
Correct, the NDP are probably the biggest victim of strategic voting and the first past the post system we have.
My "punishment" of them is purely my personal opinion. I dislike how they kept the Trudeau government propped up after the coalition's fall out, and I think the "tax holiday" was a very bad idea given our existing deficit spending.
As an Albertan, i wish to secede. We are tired of a system that renders our vote useless. The next election winner will likely be announced after the polls close in Ontario. I will vote out of principle, but I have no illusions that it will have any effect.
I understand where you're coming and it saddens me that parts of Canada no longer feel represented in the system. This is precisely the problem I worry about, and why I hope a cultural shift towards protest voting for alternatives will get us to correct course before it's too late. I'm glad you still vote!
I'm genuinely curious, does Canada slowly slipping into a polarized 2 party system not concern you?
If every election gets labeled as more important than the last, at what point would you consider voting for something you believe in as opposed to the least worst option?
Why would you think we will slip into a two party system? The Greens, the NDP and the Bloc aren’t going anywhere. And with Carney in office that will give these parties time to rebuild which is something they have all done numerous times in the past.
The NDP has gone through multiple reorganizations since its original iteration as the CCF. As have all the other parties.
Go back to the 1945 federal election and you’ll find there were 20 different parties running candidates.
Canada has always had multiple political parties and it will continue to do so.
This particular election is different and those of us who belong to other parties but are politically savvy understand that our parties cannot win, and that if we vote for them and not the Liberals we split the vote and allow the conservatives to win. We do not want the Conservatives in office so we vote strategically to make sure the Liberals win this time around!
I want to preface by saying if your views genuinely aligns with one or two of the major parties and that is why you choose between them, then my critique doea not apply to you. You are voting for what you believe in and that is excellent!
I am addressing the swath of people who, like myself, believe that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives will do a good job leading Canada. I've noticed that a lot of those people then default to choosing the "lesser evil" from the two, or worse, not vote at all.
My concern with that attitude is that it effectively creates a two party mentality regardless of the number of parties on the ballot. The sadly common idea that voting for anyone who "doesn't have a chance" is a wasted vote is problematic because it implies that in every important election, only the vision of the big two matters.
I hope this clarifies what I meant by slipping into a two party system. Maybe a pseudo two party system would be a more accurate phrasing.
I don’t understand why you think this is happening when it hasn’t happened in any of the 14 general elections I have voted in since 1974. Since the 1930’s there have been multiple parties who elected at least one MP and the NDP have had great success over the years, placing in third and fourth and at one point were the official opposition.
This election IS special because we’ve never been attacked by our largest trading partner and ally and treated like their enemy before. We’ve never had the US attack our economy, our trading, our banking system or our Prime minister with threat to annex our country. Neither the Greens nor the NDP have ever had enough support to form government. Though both have acted as king makers and by doing so extracted important promises from the ruling parties. But this time around the vast majority of voters from centre right to far left have realized that the Conservative Party is a carbon copy of the Republican Party and their MAGA supporters, and we are smart enough not to split the vote which would allow the Conservatives to take office. Many of us are life long supporters of other parties and have NEVER voted for either the Liberals or the Conservatives, but we know we need to make a choice here and the best choice for most of us is to vote for Carney. And it wouldn’t matter if he had joined the NDP or the Greens, because he is the ONLY adult in the room with the wherewithal to be able to fight back against the USA keep our economy from imploding, has the experience to understand complicated economic factors that most individuals have never even heard of and has good relations with multiple foreign leaders. Something NONE of the rest of the leaders of the other parties currently have! I guarantee if he had joined the Greens or the NDP we’d all be voting Green or NDP.
That’s why this is turning into a 2 party election.
I disagree with you. It is important to vote. Look what happened in states. I don’t think Canada will become a 2 party system & if you don’t vote you could give a party who threatens our very democracy the chance to lead our country. If you want to make a stand by not voting, this is not the election to do so.
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.
Perhaps then the major parties will finally pass some form of electoral reform that will prevent any party from winning with 37% of the vote. (Just ranked ballot would be a good start.)
My critique of strategic voting is particularly aimed at people who find that none of the major parties align with their beliefs, but still choose one of them in the elections anyways, or worse yet give up because of it.
I believe the sooner we can get the system reformed and more people engaged, the sooner we will break out of our poralization spiral and establish the type of dynamic democracy which solves problems.
There are nine candidates running in my riding. Either you generally agree with one, or more, start your own party, or don't vote at all. Your opinion doesn't hold water.
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.
Correct, the NDP are probably the biggest victim of strategic voting and the first past the post system we have.
My "punishment" of them is purely my personal opinion. I dislike how they kept the Trudeau government propped up after the coalition's fall out, and I think the "tax holiday" was a very bad idea given our existing deficit spending.
As an Albertan, i wish to secede. We are tired of a system that renders our vote useless. The next election winner will likely be announced after the polls close in Ontario. I will vote out of principle, but I have no illusions that it will have any effect.
I understand where you're coming and it saddens me that parts of Canada no longer feel represented in the system. This is precisely the problem I worry about, and why I hope a cultural shift towards protest voting for alternatives will get us to correct course before it's too late. I'm glad you still vote!
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucepardy/p/a-declaration-of-independence-for?r=17jzu2&utm_medium=ios
Respectfully, now is not thectime to mess around and give Conservatives seats.
I'm genuinely curious, does Canada slowly slipping into a polarized 2 party system not concern you?
If every election gets labeled as more important than the last, at what point would you consider voting for something you believe in as opposed to the least worst option?
Why would you think we will slip into a two party system? The Greens, the NDP and the Bloc aren’t going anywhere. And with Carney in office that will give these parties time to rebuild which is something they have all done numerous times in the past.
The NDP has gone through multiple reorganizations since its original iteration as the CCF. As have all the other parties.
Go back to the 1945 federal election and you’ll find there were 20 different parties running candidates.
Canada has always had multiple political parties and it will continue to do so.
This particular election is different and those of us who belong to other parties but are politically savvy understand that our parties cannot win, and that if we vote for them and not the Liberals we split the vote and allow the conservatives to win. We do not want the Conservatives in office so we vote strategically to make sure the Liberals win this time around!
I want to preface by saying if your views genuinely aligns with one or two of the major parties and that is why you choose between them, then my critique doea not apply to you. You are voting for what you believe in and that is excellent!
I am addressing the swath of people who, like myself, believe that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives will do a good job leading Canada. I've noticed that a lot of those people then default to choosing the "lesser evil" from the two, or worse, not vote at all.
My concern with that attitude is that it effectively creates a two party mentality regardless of the number of parties on the ballot. The sadly common idea that voting for anyone who "doesn't have a chance" is a wasted vote is problematic because it implies that in every important election, only the vision of the big two matters.
I hope this clarifies what I meant by slipping into a two party system. Maybe a pseudo two party system would be a more accurate phrasing.
I don’t understand why you think this is happening when it hasn’t happened in any of the 14 general elections I have voted in since 1974. Since the 1930’s there have been multiple parties who elected at least one MP and the NDP have had great success over the years, placing in third and fourth and at one point were the official opposition.
This election IS special because we’ve never been attacked by our largest trading partner and ally and treated like their enemy before. We’ve never had the US attack our economy, our trading, our banking system or our Prime minister with threat to annex our country. Neither the Greens nor the NDP have ever had enough support to form government. Though both have acted as king makers and by doing so extracted important promises from the ruling parties. But this time around the vast majority of voters from centre right to far left have realized that the Conservative Party is a carbon copy of the Republican Party and their MAGA supporters, and we are smart enough not to split the vote which would allow the Conservatives to take office. Many of us are life long supporters of other parties and have NEVER voted for either the Liberals or the Conservatives, but we know we need to make a choice here and the best choice for most of us is to vote for Carney. And it wouldn’t matter if he had joined the NDP or the Greens, because he is the ONLY adult in the room with the wherewithal to be able to fight back against the USA keep our economy from imploding, has the experience to understand complicated economic factors that most individuals have never even heard of and has good relations with multiple foreign leaders. Something NONE of the rest of the leaders of the other parties currently have! I guarantee if he had joined the Greens or the NDP we’d all be voting Green or NDP.
That’s why this is turning into a 2 party election.
I disagree with you. It is important to vote. Look what happened in states. I don’t think Canada will become a 2 party system & if you don’t vote you could give a party who threatens our very democracy the chance to lead our country. If you want to make a stand by not voting, this is not the election to do so.