CALGARY – A number of election signs have popped up in Calgary that don’t endorse any one candidate in the Oct. 19 federal election. Instead, they endorse “strategic voting.”
Campaigns like 1VoteMatters involve an organized plan to target certain swing ridings in an attempt to oust the Conservative Party.
Its goal is to get people to vote for the candidate that has the best chance at beating the Conservatives, and is a controversial concept that’s left many wondering if it could really work.
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Political strategists say it’s gaining momentum during the 2015 election in particular because a landslide for any one party isn’t obvious.
“Strategic voting wasn’t in anybody’s consideration when none of these contests were contests,” said Corey Hogan, a political strategist with Hill & Knowlton. “But all of a sudden you have to decide…do you vote Liberal to stop the Conservatives? I mean it didn’t matter when everyone was getting 15 per cent of the vote. But the fact that Calgary has some real contests, means you can expect the strategic voting conversation to continue.”
Advocacy organization Leadnow also runs a website called Votetogether.ca, which encourages users to enter their postal code to find out details on their riding. The site tells users whether they are in a Conservative-held swing riding, where Leadnow believes that a Conservative could be unseated if votes weren’t split between other parties. It asks users to enter an email address, pledging to vote for the candidate with the best chance of beating the Conservative. Leadnow conducts local polls, compiles historical data and information on where the candidates stand on the issues. The organizers ask the community to pick a candidate to get behind. Then, in theory, everyone who has pledged will vote for that same person.
“We’re trying to achieve change on October 19,” said Amara Possian, campaign manager with Leadnow in an August interview.
“Our electoral system is broken. It’s what gave Conservatives all the power in Parliament with just 39 per cent of the vote last time. So what we’re trying to do is bring together people in these swing ridings to vote together for the best local candidate who can win, to defeat the Conservatives.”
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With files from Erika Tucker and Leslie Young
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