Category: strategic voting

Canada’s 2019 New Year’s ResolutionWe need to stop this nonsense…



Canada’s 2019 New Year’s Resolution

We need to stop this nonsense and vote *for* the representation we want.
How is it Representative Democracy if we aren’t voting for Representative?

Proportional Representation is not a partisan issue, it is about providing voters with the representation they voted for.  PR is much better for voters because we can not only vote for the representation we want, most of us will actually get it.
It is not a partisan issue because there is support for PR across the spectrum. 

If you support Liberal ideals and policy, you might support Proportional Representation because although it can be hard work to achieve cross party consensus (almost always necessary in PR), the policy that gets made is policy most people can live with, it’s policy that will stand the test of time.  That’s not true on our current Winner-Take-All politics.  When the party that passed the good policy gets kicked out (which *always* happens sooner or later) the party that replaces them is likely to dump that good policy. 

That’s call Policy Lurch, and we’re seeing a lot of that in Ontario now, as the new Progressive Conservative Government is working to overturn everything their Liberal Predecessors did.  Even policy like campaign finance reform and the #BasicIncome pilot that had been supported by all parties in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (including the PCs).  Mr Ford’s PCs are doing this, not because it is good policy.  They’re doing this because they can.

Because our First Past The Post Voting system gives the winning party disproportional power (at the expense of the other parties & the voters who vote for them).  This is why we need #ProportionalRepresentation. 

And why neither Liberal or Conservative governments will give it to us.  Vote for candidates who will deliver PR so we can stop this nonsense. 

BC NDP to form government with BC Green supportVery often during…



BC NDP to form government with BC Green support

Very often during elections Canadians have been convinced not to vote Green or NDP because “they can’t win.”   

So instead of voting for (and maybe electing) who we want, we vote “strategically” for someone we don’t want because we’re afraid someone we hate will win.  Frankly, I think the phrase “strategic voting” is a misnomer, because it isn’t very strategic to vote against the one you want.  {Although it is very strategic for the one who gets your vote!)  I think the American term “Lesser Evilism” is far more apt.  

Thankfully we are waking up.  Since Elizabeth May’s election to the House of Commons, the New Brunswick and P.E.I.Greens are the 3rd parties in their respective provinces, and now the BC Greens are doing very well indeed.  And since the federal Liberals have dropped the ball, with both parties favouring Proportional Representation, it looks very much like BC will be the one to lead Canada into a real representative Representative Democracy.