MONTREAL — Advanced polling may have started, but many Canadians are still wondering who they’ll vote for. The indecisiveness that has marked this election has left some voters thinking about how their ballot can have the biggest impact.
“Strategic voting is when you choose to vote for your number two choice, because they’re more likely to win your riding over a party you wouldn’t want to be in power,” said Caro Loutfi of non-partisan organization Apathy is Boring.
Strategic voting has been a hot topic during this campaign, with partisan websites being created to show voters how to cast a strategic ballot in their ridings. Some have also considered a spoiled ballot in an effort to send a message about the political options presented to them.
“In the case that somebody decides to vote for three different people or decides to sign their name on the ballot, that ballot is spoiled,” said Elections Canada spokesperson Francine Bastien.
READ MORE: You can vote right now, if you want to – what you need to know
In the 2011 federal election, only 39 per cent of young voters made it to the polls. So this time around, emphasis is being put on the youth vote. At Concordia University, where a polling station has been set up, Global News asked students whether they’d be voting in this election.
“Yes because I think it’s important for students to voice their opinion,” said Stephanie Wiseman, an exercise science student.
“I’m going to vote because I find that it’s important if you want your life to be a certain way,” said actuarial mathematics student Sarah Dupuis.
They admitted, though, that many of their peers are less enthusiastic about it than they are. At Apathy is Boring, Caro Loutfi is working to counter this trend.
“The issue is not actually apathy,” she said. “Young Canadians, the majority of them, are not apathetic. There are real barriers that they’re facing in terms of civic literacy, in terms of logistics to voting.”
And those are the barriers that Thierry Tardif is also trying to break. He and a classmate, both journalism students at Concordia, have created VoteNote – a mobile application looking to bring relevant information to young Canadians about the candidates in their ridings.
“They look in the streets and they see the billboards saying Alison Turner, or Daniel Green,” said Tardif. “But at the same time, who is Daniel Green? Who is Alison Turner? You identify with the party but you don’t identify with the candidate.”
He hopes that informed voters – young and old – will make a difference in this federal election.
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