very very interesting

A friend sent me a link to Vote for Environment, a website that suggests how to vote in each riding to elect as many MPs as possible who are not Conservatives. The website acknowledges that the sort of mass strategic voting that they are advocating is not good for democracy, but the Conservatives are potentially catastrophic for the environment and for Canada’s ability to play a leading role internationally in the fight against climate change.

Mass strategic voting could be completely unnecessary if Canadians demanded a change in the way we elect our MPs. Some sort of mixed proportional and single member plurality system would be ideal. It is important to still have representatives who represent a geographic area, but we should also work to ensure that the proportion of seats won by a party more closely reflects the proportion of the vote that the party won.

At least in 2008 progressive voters should vote for whomever stands the best chance of beating the Conservatives in their riding, then we can worry about making the necessary changes to our voting system so that people can actually vote for the party that they want and have their vote count every time.