rabble.ca Canadian federal election blog

Get Out and (Strategic) Vote

By Marc Lee

I feel for other bloggers on rabble.ca’s election blog who want people to vote their convictions. A few recent posts have denounced strategic voting, even if it means a Harper majority government. I don’t get it.

For the first time ever, the web can play a real difference in this election. Sites like VoteforEnvironment.ca offer the promise of defeating an arrogant government by organizing within the a first-past-the-post system that basically sucks in reflecting democratic preferences. And vote sharing sites offer the potential for people to make a strategic vote but have their real preference supported elsewhere in the country.

Electing a Harper majority will not move forward the goal of a proportional representation electoral system (a goal I support). But in the next four to five years a Harper majority could cause immense damage, affecting millions of people. We are headed for a recession, and if world leaders cannot pull off a meaningful plan, worse. That economic context will give plenty of justification for sharply reducing federal transfers to provinces (in support of health care, post-secondary education and other social services) and to individuals (senior’s benefits, children’s benefits and unemployment insurance) in order to keep the budget balanced as revenues fall.

But imagine a new post-election narrative in this campaign: not Harper gets majority nor Harper kept to minority; instead, Harper loses the government (due to blunders in Quebec and on the economy, but much aided by an internet uprising). So get out there and vote strategically. It may taste a bit odd in the booth but when the results are announced it could be really sweet.