Monday, April 25, 2011

Voting with my heart

Give it a rest Dippers, your partisanship has become even more obnoxious than the Libs around these parts for the last week and half.

Now, strategic voting is considered a Lib/Con plot to hold back the NDP.

Excuse me, there are 45 ridings that are in play, where a split vote between lib, ndp and green will give Harper the seat. In some cases we can prevent him from gaining the seat and in others we can take a seat way from him. In some seats the NDP candidate can win if the Liberal and Green voters suck it up and vote NDP. In others the NDP and Green voters need to suck it up.

I live in one of those ridings, every vote that the Green and NDP voter holds back from the Liberal candidate in this election in my riding will help the conservative hang on to the seat. The differences between the con and the lib has been 300 votes in the last two elections. The NDP and Green votes combined equal less that 12 percent of votes cast for the last 2 elections.

Get it, neither the NDP candidate, nor the Green candidate have a chance to win the seat and by voting for them I'm helping the conservative candidate. Yet the advice I am getting from the dippers around these parts is to vote with my heart.

Well excuse me, even though I am more in line with NDP policies, even though I am more socialist than capitalist, even though I have been more outspoken against the Liberal appeasement of Harper than the NDPs, I am voting with my heart.

I'm voting for the Liberal, because in my heart I know that every seat Harper looses moves him farther away from destroying my country.

Get a grip.

13 comments:

fern hill said...

Yay, Willy! Voting with heart and brain. I did a strategic voting link-fest today. Inform yourself, stay up to date, and vote smart.

w/v ruinomi Bodes well?

CanNurse said...

EXACTLY! I have heard TONS of anti-strategic vote ranting from Liberals, & now NDP has started. The Greens are at it too. CUT IT OUT, ALL OF YOU! (sorry for yelling.) This blog makes perfect sense! Look at your own specific riding & vote the strongest candidate AGAINST the Cons. Period. Saving Canada is far too important, in this election, to let petty partisan party politics take over. That's what Steve WANTS!

Doug81 said...

No, I think it's just a Liberal plot.

WILLY said...

Hi Fern,

Yes, I saw your post and I should of linked, it is an excellent resource. Cathy steered me to the Democracy Project and it has really improved this time around with movements by ridings based on the daily polls.

I see you pounding that Twitter thing too. Keep it up, we all have to.

WILLY said...

Hey CN

I expect partisanship from party members, I mean that's why you join a party, but sheesh Iggy says something and you get eight versions of it within an hour. Or Jack gets worried that strategic voting may hurt his rise and it is now a Con/Lib plot.

It is as simple as you state, check the stats for your own riding and vote for best chance to beat Harper.

Thanks for dropping by.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you on this one. Nay-sayers put it down as not being positive, but I am absolutely positive I do not want a Harper government. Every vote counts and people should all feel free to vote the way they wish.

Steve V said...

Well said! That's the way it has to be played.

Skinny Dipper said...

I was hesitant about voting. I didn't see any major party actively campaigning for proportional representation. In the end, I decided to vote for the NDP today.

While I am definitely not a fan of Stephen Harper, I was not going to vote for the local Liberal candidate just to get rid of Harper. In my riding, it is likely that the Liberal will win again. I voted for the NDP because it has a commitment to support proportional representation. It also supported a recently defeated private member's bill that dealt with looking at proportional representation.

The Liberals have ways to improve the number of people voting. However, they do not mention supporting changes to the way Canadians vote. They do not support proportional representation as a party.

I will not tell opponents of Stephen Harper which party they should support. I won't even suggest strategic voting. If people choose to vote, they can vote any way they want.

All the best to all of the opponents of Stephen Harper.

SD

WILLY said...

Thank you Steve.

WILLY said...

Anon thanks for dropping by.

WILLY said...

Hi SD,

The good news is that Brits are now looking at Alternate voting and are running a referendum in June on it. Something like Aus has and who knows maybe after this election the Libs might be also be willing to look at it.

ck said...

I've been frustrated with the NDP in recent years. Distrust for them goes up as time goes by for me.

Been mostly a swing Bloc-Liberal voter since 2004, depending where I lived at the time.

Living in a riding where the fight is between Liberal and NDP, I voted Liberal on Friday, but if the Harpercon candidate were a threat here, and the NDP guy was the best guy to fend him off, I would've parked my vote with the NDP.

That said, I will advocate voting for NDP candidates who are most likely to to stave off the Harpercons in certain ridings, as I will advocate voting for the Bloc or the Liberal candidates who are most likely to beat Harpercons in other ridings.

So Willy, my hat off to you for writing this post today. The more who promote strategic voting, the better our odds of cutting Harper down to size.

WILLY said...

Thanks for dropping by CK, I believe the majority of Canadians who want rid of Harper will figure it out and become a coalition of voters.

The parties can figure it out after he is gone.

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