Strategic Voting
TL;DR: If you are in Calgary/Centre, and you prefer any party over the Conservatives, then there’s really only one choice on who to vote for: Kent Hehr for the Liberals. It’s a close enough race to matter who you vote for.
The How & Why to follow:
To everyone in Calgary Centre Federal Riding: (That’s roughly the area between Deerfoot, Glenmore, Sarcee, and Memorial)
As of the latest ThreeHundredEight riding poll, The PC candidate Joan Crockatt is in a neck-and-neck race with Liberal Kent Hehr. (36.4% vs 35.8%).
http://www.threehundredeight.com/p/canada.html
The NDP candidate (Jillian Ratti) polls at 14.7%, and the Green (Thana Boonlert) at 11.4%.
The election overall is very close. The Conservatives are ahead in seats overall, only by about 8 seats with the NDP and 9 with the Liberals. http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/poll-tracker/2015/index.html
First place is the place that matters. You can win a seat by just one vote, even if most of the people in the riding don’t want you to win.
That’s the situation we have in Calgary Centre. Roughly 62% do not want the Ms. Crockatt (Conservative) to win. But she will, unless we vote for Kent Hehr instead. (Ratti/NDP and Boonlert/Green do not have enough support to win.)
I (roughly) want the NDP to win the election, because they’ve promised to change the voting rules to make strategic voting less necessary. That’s why I’m promoting/voting for the Liberal candidate, Kent Hehr. He’s got a real chance of winning, and if he does, he takes a seat away from the Conservatives. In turn, that brings the NDP closer to power.
Strategic voting sucks, but it’s necessary with the system we have now. You’re not just voting for the candidate/party you like — you’re voting against the ones you dislike.
If you dislike the Liberals/Trudeau just as much as the Conservatives/Harper, then voting NDP/Green is completely legitimate.
But, if you want the Conservatives out, or even just want some sort of change… it can happen, if you vote carefully. The math matters far more than the policy.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-centre-debate-draws-crowd-contested-1.3230694?cmp=rss