AdamH Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Not sure why no one thought of this, and today IS the day, but why not: 1. Vote for the liberals, and 2. Send $1.75 to the NDP/Green/Marijuana party (your "gut-instinct" choice) I take no credit for this, it all goes to my brilliant girlfriend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 no offence, but that's not the best idea. if everyone who wanted to support those parties did that, we could have a liberal majority and then those parties wouldn't have any say at all. If there is a minority government and those parties have all the "real" votes they should, they have more of a chance of having their voices heard than if there's a liberal majority. We all know how that turns out. And if a smaller party has more of a backing in this election, that can only lend them more credibility in the next one. Vote for who you believe in. That's the only way the system will work. if you don't believe in anyone, go to the polls and vote for undecided or whatever the option is. That sends a louder message than not going at all, because they know you took the time to go and say "i refuse to choose the nicest smelling pile of sh!t of all the ones presented to me" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
\/\/illy Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Unfortunately, voting for "who you believe in" in our current system does not work. We must vote strategically which means voting Liberal to keep the Nazi party (Conservatives) out of power. Then it's time to push for proportional representation so that in the next election, we can vote for who we believe in. The only thing that I don't understand is the $1.75. What am I missing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guigsy Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 i believe the party you vote for receives $1.75 or something like that, when you vote for them. you know, they can use that money to generate more publicity for the next time around... or at least some coffees and a 12'er of donuts for the party afterparty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secondtube Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 vote for who you believe in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
\/\/illy Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 vote for who you believe in! That's a beautiful thought. Oh, to live in a perfect world where your single vote would actually mean anything. As I was saying, our system does not work that way. In theory, it's possible for a political party to have 100% of the seats with less than 40% of the popular vote. If you vote for who you believe in, you may be truly 'throwing away your vote.' If people don't understand this, I'd like to hear why. (The only positive thing about voting for who you believe in would be that $1.75 apparently.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcO Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 where's that voting poll that one of the Bouchard bros started a while back? it should be "pinned" to be top of this list, especially today. I have cast my vote, and am proud to have done so. I'm at class until 10:30pm tonight and I hope to be left in the dark as to the incoming results until I can get home, cold beer in hand, and see what is transpiring in what must be seen as the most interesting election since the early 1990s! And yes, after much deliberation, I cast my vote according to conscience rather than strategy, However, I live in a riding (Hamilton Centre) where I felt comfortable doing so. It's a personal decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secondtube Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 thank you marc! i dont care who you voted for, but at least you had the balls to vote for who you concience told you to... sorry willy. i just dont agree with you. if the pc's beat the lib's, at least i know i didn't cower and vote for a party i didn't want to see in power. i want to see the ndp in power, so therefore i will vote for them. i just hope the rest of you do the same! (shainhouse) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcO Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Just remember folks, it *is* a personal thing. No one can cast judgment on another person's vote (not saying anyone has here, just trying to pre-empt any potential nastiness). IMO, the only judgment that could reasonably be cast is on those who simply choose to ignore their obligation to participate in our beautiful (but flawed) democracy. People have the right to vote their conscience *or* vote strategically. We have to respect each others' constitional right to vote however we wish. Like I said, my decision was based on what I felt was a realistic assessment of my own riding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
\/\/illy Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Just remember folks, it *is* a personal thing. No one can cast judgment on another person's vote (not saying anyone has here, just trying to pre-empt any potential nastiness). IMO, the only judgment that could reasonably be cast is on those who simply choose to ignore their obligation to participate in our beautiful (but flawed) democracy. I could not agree more. People have the right to vote their conscience *or* vote strategically. We have to respect each others' constitional right to vote however we wish. Yes, that is absolutely true. However, there is nothing to say that we cannot try to influence each other; as most of our opinions are formed based on the opinions of those that we respect and/or trust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secondtube Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 "Yes, that is absolutely true. However, there is nothing to say that we cannot try to influence each other; as most of our opinions are formed based on the opinions of those that we respect and/or trust." YEP! my friend i went camping with this past weekend WAS going to vote PC.... thankfully myself and the other person we went with were able to convince him NOT to vote PC, but didn't tell him to vote Lib or NDP. he can choose that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamH Posted June 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Yeah yeah yeah vote your conscience this and that. And yeah I'm not telling anyone what to do here but voting your conscience at this moment could have very nasty results for the whole country. I'd suggest that rather than being self-righteous and egocentric about it you look at the pluralist side of it and think of Canada as a whole here. My suggestion to give 1.75 to the party that won your heart is to ensure that they know that, in different circumstances such as Prop. representation, you would be voting to make them the ruling party or at least to give them a real chance to influence public policy. But unfortunately this time around we're voting to keep someone OUT of government. And this is just my opinion so take it or leave it. Just vote one way or another as MarcO and others have said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarfmaster C Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 one problem with this 'brilliant' strategy is that the 1.75 won't get the greens or any other 'fringe' party into the leadership debate. as long as they remain a minority in the polls there won't be a big enough push to get the smaller parties real coverage. also, in response to \/\/illy's first post - even if it is your intent to vote to keep the conservatives out - you need to look at the candidates and the political climate of your individual riding. i think the ndp have a good chance in ptbo, so to vote liberal with the intention of keeping the consv's out would not be a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secondtube Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 thank you earthfreak.... this election isn't so black and white. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 But if my conscience tells me that the Conservates are bad, bad, bad... am I really betraying it by voting Liberal instead of NDP??? The only important thing, IMO, is that you vote. Period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamH Posted June 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 I should clarify the $1.75 thing. In my case I would vote Liberal and give $1.75 to the NDP because that's where I'd put my conscience vote. The same holds true if you were a Green Party supporter...vote liberal and send them a $1.75 so that they can boost their efforts and remain in existence. A friend of mine who works with the Federal Green Party told me that they had a mere $100 000 for their national budget, and with a candidate in every riding that money was spread pretty damn thin. You can help keep them in existence and support them financially so that come next election they will have a seat in the debacle that was the national debates...FYI they were involved and did quite well in the environment debate I posted about some time ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
\/\/illy Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 my friend i went camping with this past weekend WAS going to vote PC.... thankfully myself and the other person we went with were able to convince him NOT to vote PC, but didn't tell him to vote Lib or NDP. he can choose that! This is what scares me: There is no PC party. It's the Conservative party. This, of course, is really just the Alliance Party with a new 'friendlier' name hoping to take advantage of people that don't realize that they aren't the Progressive Conservatives. There was a really interesting article in the View this week about the dropping of the 'Progressive' prefix from the party name. I'm sure you can imagine what they were pointing out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phred Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 I want to add my 2cents to the obligation thing. I think that it is everyone's obligiation to vote, but in order to do so you <b>must</b> become informed first. It is not enough to vote. You need to research... I am saying this because one of my distant relatives is being presured to vote, and she doesn't know any issues so is voting who the presuree is voting for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
\/\/illy Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Just to clarify: There is still a PC party but they don't have representatives in many ridings and I don't think that's what people are talking about when they say "PC". (Nor do I think it's President's Choice. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairySari Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 The $1.75 thing is probably because before Chretien went bye-bye he introduced legislation that says that if a party recieves 2% or more of the popular vote (not number of seats) then they get $1.75 of funding per year per vote until the next election. So even if you are considering doing this (which I am not, i voted for the candidate i think will best represent my riding, but whatever) you should send $7 to the party you like best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoMack Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Willy: I can totally see your argument, and given the most recent U.S. presidential election it seems to hold true. BUT, remember the early 90s when the NDP won in Ontario. No one, and I mean NO ONE (not even the party itself!) expected to win that election. The reason it happened is because there wasn't a strategic voting / fear mongering, going on and people WERE voting their consience. [ as an aside, it is Bob Rae and his government that will likely prevent the NDP from ever suceeding again, but thats another story] One more thing, I don't think its fair to compare too much the Canadian system with the American. The way the president is elected is much different to the P.M., and it is entirely a 2 party system. While Canada is a 3 or 4 party system, with 2 obviously having lessor roles. The Ontario Rae government shows that in Canada anything can happen, whereas in the U.S., in the words of the aliens from the Simpsons "its a two party system, you have to vote for one of us, hahahaha" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meggo Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 how bout we cross off all the names on the list, and scrawl in big letters: "VELVET FOR PM!!!" :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gentlemonkey Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 Just to clarify: There is still a PC party but they don't have representatives in many ridings and I don't think that's what people are talking about when they say "PC". (Nor do I think it's President's Choice. ) The actual PC party and the Alliance definitley voted to merge as of December 2003. This is the first I've heard of anyone trying to start a party without the party.. hilarious.. that website being posted probably coincided with Sir John A. McDonald's corpse spontaneously combusting in his grave.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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