When Donald Trump says something about Canada, it favours the Liberals, and when he's not focused on Canada, it favours the Conservatives, says pollster Nik Nanos. Meanwhile, pollster Frank Graves says he's seeing the worst level of despair since he began polling in the 1990s and says the challenge for the government is to provide optimism, security, and prosperity.
Please do not turn our multi-party democracy into an America-style duopoly with your “strategic voting”. All it’s done is turn our elections into another Red-vs-Blue nightmare where both parties have the same policies and are only differentiated by culture wars.
It’s not my decision, unfortunately. It’s a structural feature that’s inherent in first-past-the-post voting. If you don’t vote strategically then you are “throwing your vote away” whether you believe it or not.
Canada’s been fortunate in having some ridings where a national “third party” was locally the strategic one to vote for. I myself was fortunate to be able to vote NDP last election, my riding was one of the few where the two leading candidates were NDP and Conservative rather than Liberal and Conservative. Same went for some Bloc voters in Quebec, presumably. But look at the history of Canadian elections, it’s a two-party system in all but name. The times where it wasn’t ultimately a question of “Liberal or Conservative?” Were rare aberrations, and even in those rare cases where there was a viable third party candidate they still only made it as far as opposition.
I would very much like to change that. I consider Trudeau’s greatest betrayal to be how he reneged on electoral reform, and I suspect it will be seen as Canada’s last lost opportunity to avoid an American-style future fate. But just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I can’t recognize the actual situation we’re facing.
I consider Trudeau’s greatest betrayal to be how he reneged on electoral reform, and I suspect it will be seen as Canada’s last lost opportunity to avoid an American-style future fate.
Please do not turn our multi-party democracy into an America-style duopoly with your “strategic voting”. All it’s done is turn our elections into another Red-vs-Blue nightmare where both parties have the same policies and are only differentiated by culture wars.
It’s not my decision, unfortunately. It’s a structural feature that’s inherent in first-past-the-post voting. If you don’t vote strategically then you are “throwing your vote away” whether you believe it or not.
Canada’s been fortunate in having some ridings where a national “third party” was locally the strategic one to vote for. I myself was fortunate to be able to vote NDP last election, my riding was one of the few where the two leading candidates were NDP and Conservative rather than Liberal and Conservative. Same went for some Bloc voters in Quebec, presumably. But look at the history of Canadian elections, it’s a two-party system in all but name. The times where it wasn’t ultimately a question of “Liberal or Conservative?” Were rare aberrations, and even in those rare cases where there was a viable third party candidate they still only made it as far as opposition.
I would very much like to change that. I consider Trudeau’s greatest betrayal to be how he reneged on electoral reform, and I suspect it will be seen as Canada’s last lost opportunity to avoid an American-style future fate. But just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I can’t recognize the actual situation we’re facing.
This is worth all the upvotes in this discussion.