Tuesday
Apr262011
My Election Strategy: Engage Passionately, Invest Strategically, Vote Tactically
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 
I’m sitting in the dark in my basement typing on my laptop. The power is out and my blackberry battery is dead, which means that all contact with the outside world has been cut off for now. No CBC news, no #momthevote discussions on twitter, no reading and responding to comments on my latest Care2 Causes post. Just silence and darkness.I wonder briefly how many of our neighbours have started up their generators to be sure they don’t miss what might be the last hockey game of the season and consider how much vitriol will be spewed from the people of this region towards Hydro Quebec if this is indeed the end.
But then my thoughts turn back to the election. I wonder: Will Canadians be more engaged in the election if the hockey season is “over” for us? Will students be more engaged once their exams are done? Will royal watchers be able to refocus after soaking up the wedding of their future king? Is the apathy in our country contingent or is it absolute?
Our political system isn’t perfect and our political parties are not perfect, but opting to stay home on election day isn’t going to change that. So on May 2, be sure to go out and vote. If you feel like that isn’t enough, then get involved in the political process – make your views heard, get involved with a party, consider running for office. There are many ways to get involved and casting a vote is both the start and the bare minimum.
My Election Strategy
In our first past the post system, I hear a lot of people talk about the need to vote strategically to keep the Conservatives from getting a majority or to keep a Conservative candidate from winning a seat. Personally, I don’t consider that to be strategic voting. To me, a strategy involves developing and executing a plan to achieve specific goals. My personal election strategy includes both short-term and long-term goals and a path that will help me to achieve them in general and as I cast my vote next week. The three parts of my election strategy are: engage passionately, invest strategically and vote tactically.
1. Engage Passionately
Outside of the election campaign, I am very politically engaged. Through my writing here and in other places (e.g. Care2 Causes), I share my thoughts on political issues with my readers. On twitter, I am frequently engaged in political discussions. On specific issues, I sometimes get involved in advocating for a position or engaging in consultations. In the future, I would like to become more involved with grass roots organizations on specific issues and help to influence political party policies and platforms on issues of importance.
During an election campaign, my political engagement ramps up significantly. While I certainly have strong viewpoints about some issues and some political parties, my most important goal during an election campaign is to help people learn about the issues and to try to understand what the politicians are saying (or not saying) on issues of importance. During this campaign, I wrote summaries of the platforms of the five major political parties, I have been writing about the election at Care2 Causes, and I have been engaged in discussions on twitter under the #elxn41 and #momthevote hash tags.
2. Invest Strategically
I choose to invest in the political parties that I support during an election campaign. The Income Tax Act allows Canadians to donate to political parties as well as specific electoral district offices and candidates. Canadians receive 75% of the first $400 that they donate back as a tax credit. That means if you donate $20, you get $15 back on your tax return. If you donate $400, you get $300 back on your tax return. After $400, the rate of your tax credit decreases a bit, but is still quite generous.
In Canada, political parties also get $1.75 for each vote they receive, as long as they get more than 2% of the vote overall. This is used by a lot of political parties (and their supporters) to discourage so-called “strategic voting” (which I actually call “tactical voting”, as you’ll see in a moment). My perspective is that if I donate $2 to the party (of which I get $1.50 back), I’m off the hook if I opt to vote tactically.
In any case, I donated much more than $2. I donated $400, split between two political parties. I consider this to be a strategic investment in helping the parties that I think have the best plan and vision for Canada (sustainability, growth, compassion, equality) to share their ideas with Canadians and to further develop their ideas on a go forward basis.
3. Vote Tactically
Like many Canadians, I long for a proportional representation system. Instead of feeling like a vote for the party I believe in would be a wasted vote, I would like to know that every vote counts towards sending people from that party to Canada’s Parliament. Unfortunately, like many Canadians, the parties that I would like to vote for do not have a good chance of winning in my riding.
Thankfully, there are four political parties whose platforms I think are decent. By decent, I mean a whole lot better than the status quo (Conservative government). That doesn't mean that they don't make me cringe from time to time (none of them are perfect, all of them have things in their platforms that make me raise my eyebrows). But they are better than what we have now. From that perspective, I am willing to vote for any of those four parties and will vote for the one that has the best chance of beating the Conservative incumbent in my riding.
I have signed up to participate in Pair Vote. This means that I could be matched with someone in another riding and we would swap votes. That person would vote for the party that I want to vote for and I would vote for the party that they want to vote for. This would ensure that both of our true choices get “counted” somewhere (for that $1.75 and for the recognition that a Canadian somewhere did want to make that choice). It would also allow both of us to vote in a way that could beat a Conservative candidate, instead of both feeling like our vote is wasted. However, not everyone gets a match in the Pair Vote system. Even if I am unable to find a match, I will still go to the polls and cast a tactical vote for the party that I think has the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate.
What is Your Election Strategy?
I’ve outlined my election strategy above: Engage Passionately, Invest Strategically, Vote Tactically. Now tell me about yours….
Still not sure how to vote?
Read my posts on the parties' platforms here:
- Bloc Quebecois
- Conservative Party of Canada
- Green Party of Canada
- Liberal Party of Canada
- New Democratic Party
Please also check out my Care2 Causes post called Tools to Help You Navigate the Canadian Election and my Bad Moms Club post called If the Political Parties Were Bad Moms. If you want to discuss politics with other moms, also be sure to check out the #momthevote hash tag on twitter and the Mom The Vote facebook page.
Reader Comments (10)
I really like how you outlined this and I am taking much the same strategy. Though I don't financial contribute to the parties as much as I would like to.. that is a temporary financial situation and I will again when we have the funds.
I have been very vocal with sharing that in my riding, I don't even really have the option of voting 'tactically' as you call it. And of the three political parties running against the Conservative incumbent, I agree least with the one that is closest (but still very unlikely) to beat the Conservative. So I am voting purely on my preferred party platform.
I tried to sign up for pair vote, but was not matched (yet). However, I have lived in other riding's before where this wasn't the case and I have voted, at one point or another, for every left of centre party, based on a tactical or individual candidate in the riding decision.
My strategy is similar to yours. I agree that we have several decent platforms to choose from and we, in my riding at least, have several lively candidates to choose from. We are lucky that way. Actually we almost have too many choices here. We are not pleased with the conservative strategy that meant zero interaction with conservative candidates during the process. It is telling I think when a party fails to interact at all during the election. To me, that indicates that none of these candidates CPC- will represent our city well.what a poor strategy!
I feel very fortunate that the incumbent in my riding, and the strongest candidate by a long shot, is actually the candidate I want to vote for! So I have not had the misfortune of trying to figure out how to use my vote. I also do wish for a more representative system than what we have now. In the meantime, I am happy that I can vote with both my heart and my head.
I didn't know that bit about the tax credit, so thanks for sharing. I vote with my heart every time. It's the only way I feel good about myself the morning after. Win or lose, at least I stuck to my beliefs. (Plus I live in Layton's riding so, for federal at least, I know I can vote Green for example and the NDP (whom I also support) will get in anyway.
I live in a heavy Conservative riding apparently (he is our current MP and all I see is a sea of blue signs). I feel like my vote does not matter for this reason. I do however plan to vote for the party that I think stands the best chance of beating the Conservative in my riding. Now how do I find out who that is for my specific riding?
Jen:
There are a number of different sites out there that do election predictions and some of them also give the best shot to beat the Conservatives. One of those is http://www.projectdemocracy.ca/.
[...] My Election Strategy: Engage Passionately, Invest Strategically, Vote Tactically – PhD in Parenting. Annie’s summaries of each major Canadian political party’s platform are especially informative for my fellow Canadians and I who will be voting on Monday. [...]
Here's a news site with an updated side-by-side list of promises from each campaign for your last minute perusal.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/What+they+promised/4705572/story.html" rel="nofollow">Ottawa Citizen: What They Promised
More or less similar to what you wrote here, but includes the full gamut including the economy and international relations all in a fairly tight post. It doesn't help though, they're all bad. Some things are good about each, but I can't bring myself to believe any of it anyway. They're all either lying to us or lying to themselves :)
Personally, I think the Greens have the best platform of all of them across the board. However, my first priority right now is stopping Harper.
Thanks for posting that link. The version in the actual newspaper was much easier on the eyes - nice layout in a chart. Too bad they didn't replicate that somehow online.
I lump Greens in with NDP as having the weakest economic platform which is the cornerstone for paying for promises. I firmly believe that those parties will set Canada back, and they'll find out that they actually don't have the money to deliver and the economy will suffer as they tax the engines. But CPC is just so full of contempt for the people. I really hope that Harper and his guys see the error of their ways ... the NDP surge should be a clear indication. Layton as the leader of the opposition could be a really powerful conscience ... just don't let him touch the money please!!! I do hope May herself gets elected, then she could get some experience, maybe attend help out on a few committees or something: I see she's decided on a riding closer to her home this time.
If NDP wins then it will likely be a minority, so then maybe it would be roughly equivalent, with Layton running amok but having CPC opposition as the reality check. Either way might be ok.