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.
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You’re right, strategic voting would be completely unnecessary if every vote counted.
It’s not just the Greens. In 2006, 220,000 Alberta Liberal voters elected no one. They got no representation in Ottawa. And a quarter of a million Toronto Conservative voters elected no Conservative MPs either. Harper’s caucus would have been a lot different with 10 more MPs from the Greater Toronto area, 6 more from the Greater Montreal area, 9 fewer from Alberta, and 5 fewer from Saskatchewan, if we had gotten the House of Commons we voted for.
Here’s a contest. How many voters across Canada will cast votes on October 14 that elect no one? (Hint: in 2006 it was 7,584,409, more than half the voters.)
If you submit the closest guess before October 14, you win a $1,000 prize. Go to OrphanVoters.ca.
In BC, you can vote for BC-STV next spring. With 20 districts, you will still have representatives who represent a geographic area. Federally, with only 36 ridings in BC, you might do better with 24 larger local ridings and 12 MPs elected at large to top-up the local results in proportion to the votes.
You should join Fair Vote Canada:
http://www.fairvote.ca/en/Join