rabble.ca Canadian federal election blog

Go now to www.voteforenvironment.ca

By Murray Dobbin

The unpredictable outcomes of shifts in party support continue to make many people nervous about a possible Harper majority in the Oct 14 vote. This has more and more people talking about some kind of strategic voting to ensure that the anti-Harper vote is not once again split. Until recently that was mostly just talk - with some information about where the close seats were but little systematic work on guiding people on how to vote strategically and where.’

But Alice Klein (editor of Toronto’s NOW magazine) has done an amazing job of providing that guidance with the founding of a new web site www.voteforenvironment.ca (VFE). It is an impressive effort. It is focussed on the environment but for those also concerned about other issues, this is effectively an anti-Harper site as VFE recognizes that every other party has legitimate policies for protecting the environment. It identifies the hot contests - the 63 seats that it believes strategic voting could defeat a Conservative - analyzes each one and comes up with a recommendation on who to vote for. It bases its recommendation on a combination of the voting results of the 2006 election, modified by existing polling data. It constantly updates the information (and even allows you to pick your favourite pollster’s results to combine with the 2006 results to see the predicted outcome.)

The creators of the site suggest that if the vote were taken today without “voting smart” the conservatives would get 147 seats, Libs - 76; NDP 34; the Bloc - 49; and the Greens - 0. But if “we vote smart” says VFE, the Conservatives would get just 97 seats, the Libs 106; the NDP - 46; the Bloc 53 and the Greens - 1. Optimistic, yes, but not impossible.

While the site highlights the ‘hot’ ridings it actually does the calculations for every one of the 308 ridings. In those where the result is a foregone conclusion it just advises that you work hard for the environment.

I checked out about 20 hot ridings across the country and while I didn’t agree with all the recommendations I agreed with the vast majority. The site has a dozen different ways to act on the plan - including lots of grass roots engagement. There are a few small glitches and puzzles in this volunteer effort but Alice Klein and her colleague Kevin Grandia (and all the volunteers) deserve kudos for this call to action which should be promoted far and wide - but especially in the 63 ridings where “voting smart” could defeat the most dangerous prime minister the country has ever faced.