rabble.ca Canadian federal election blog

Time to Focus Our Attention (and our Votes)

by Jim Stanford

Harper’s ruthlessly disciplined, defensive campaign (complete with RCMP assistance to keep protestors and reporters alike at bay) has got him tantalizingly close to majority territory.

Progressive Canadians know in their guts what a Harper majority, and a 4-year blank cheque to his hard neoliberal vision, would mean for our prospects for social and environmental justice. The weaknesses, divisions, and opportunism displayed by all the opposition parties cannot allow Harper to win this power. His popular vote (high 30’s) isn’t remotely a majority view; it isn’t even higher than what Conservatives have typically polled in Canada (see Marc Lee at the Progressive Economics Forum, http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2008/09/26/abc-by-the-numbers/, for the numbers). It’s clearly the partisan breakdown, not a conservative shift in Canadians’ thinking, that is opening the door to his majority.

There are 50 close ridings (mostly in BC, Ontario, and Quebec) where the majority-vs-minority outcome will be determined. In those ridings in particular, we need to focus our attention, and our votes, to stop Harper’s drive for majority.

Murray Dobbin and Alice Klein have already explained (below) the Vote for Environment website, which is an awesome initiative.

Here’s another website, called Democratic Space, closely followed by all the parties and the pundits, that gives information and guidance for ABC strategizing:

http://www.democraticspace.com/canada2008/

On Monday they will publish a detailed guide that includes identifying the strategic choice in each riding. I think these sites are convenient ways for groups campaigning to stop Harper’s majority to encourage members and the public to act strategically — but without getting ourselves mired in the controversial process of trying to identify strategic choices in each riding.

Elizabeth May and Gilles Duceppe are both explicitly advocating an anti-Conservative strategic vote (both recognizing that a Conservative majority would devastate progressive causes, not to mention their own parties’ political positions). Danny Williams’ ABC campaign will single-handedly strip away 2 or 3 seats from Harper. We need to hear many more voices to that end. Yes, there are things about strategic voting that are nauseating, and yes we need to change our electoral system, and yes you have to hold your nose when you cast your vote. (Frankly, I have to hold my nose whoever I vote for: there’s no major party platform that a socialist can feel good about.) But in the meantime stopping a Harper majority is obviously, painfully the overarching priority. Using vehicles like Democratic Space or the Vote for Environment sites can help us organize that sentiment and make it more powerful.

The growing number of candidates who’ve been forced to withdraw from the race (most recently including Lesley Hughes in Manitoba) also offers a convenient opportunity to focus the anti-Conservative vote. In ridings where an NDP or Liberal candidate has withdrawn, we should be able to head full guns blazing to an “ABC” position.