Here’s the major flaw about the 2015 “strategic voting” movement. Polls no longer indicate how people want to vote, but how they are being told to vote to “get rid of Harper”. The more people pledge to “vote together” for someone who may not be their top choice, the more unreliable the polls become at reflecting the true values of Canadians.
You have one vote for an MP. You do not vote for a prime minister. Your MP is YOUR voice in parliament. Giving power to a party to get rid of another is democracy gone awry. I reject the accusation of vote-splitting. New ideas are healthy in a democracy. If a candidate of a party offering the best ideas (in your opinion) is your first choice to represent you and your riding, vote for that candidate. Anything else is playing into the hands of parties and candidates that prefer to use old data and questionable polls to suppress or sway the voters in a manipulative attempt to invoke fear and win at all costs. As the Conservatives know, fear is a very strong motivator. I thought we had had enough of those tactics with the Harper government.
There are some excellent Green candidates running on Vancouver Island. In spite of the polls, the Green vote is going up and in several ridings they are showing that they could win. If the people who say they’d like to vote Green actually did, we’d have more respectful, intelligent MPs in Ottawa willing to work across party lines for our collective good and Canada would be closer to the Canada we want it to be.
This is my chance to reject fear and vote FOR something. I’m voting for Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi because I believe she most closely shares my values and she has the character, intelligence, and skills to make a difference in Ottawa. Her chances of doing so are increased because she cannot be ordered to ignore her conscience or vote for something that is not in the best interests of her constituents.
If enough Greens are elected this year to join Elizabeth May, which is altogether possible, they could have enough influence to bring the other parties together in a minority government led by either the NDP or the Liberals. Now this is something to hope for! You can’t get what you want if you don’t vote for it.
Marilyn Venturi
Cobble Hill
