There has been a lot of talk about strategic voting in the upcoming election. With the Liberals and the Conservatives nearly tied in the polls and the election less than a week away, many people are arguing that if Canadians want to see anything other than a Conservative government in power, they should vote Liberal – even if it’s not their first choice.
But what if you don’t like the Liberal platform? What if choosing what some have called “the lesser of two evils” doesn’t sit well with you because it’s still – by its own rationale – choosing an “evil” party to govern the country?
Let’s take a look at an even more polarized election system – the U.S. election system – where two parties run candidates that might get in and a handful of other parties run candidates that everyone knows are never going to be president of anything.
One of those unlikely candidates was Ralph Nader in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. Someone eventually asked Nader why he kept running, despite almost never getting more than one per cent of the vote (in 2000 he got 2.74 per cent, his best ever).
Nader wasn’t delusional. He said that he knew he wasn’t going to be president but that was never his ambition. Nader explained: he wanted to give voters a choice.
Nader wanted to offer a platform with different ideals and priorities so that when a Democrat or a Republican was elected, there would be hard evidence that at least some Americans (one per cent of Americans is still a lot of Americans) wanted something other than what was being offered in the Democratic or Republican platform.
In Canada, our political system is actually designed for this kind of thinking. Your vote on Oct. 19 doesn’t elect the next prime minister; it elects a member of Parliament in your riding who – theoretically – represents your community’s interests in Parliament.
So if you’re a Conservative through and through and you’re hoping to see a Conservative majority in government after this election, then vote Conservative. Same goes if you’re a Liberal.
On the other hand, if you like the NDP or Green Party platforms more than the Liberals but think it’s a wasted vote, then think again. You might not be voting in the prime minister you want – or even the MP you want – but you are showing your support for the platform you want and that doesn’t go completely unnoticed by whoever does win.
It’s not a perfect system, but voting for what you want is better than voting for what you don’t want because it’s “strategic,” and it’s a lot better than not voting at all.
