Get Out And Vote: Sixty hours until the polls close, as I write


Election Day in Canada is Monday, October 21st.  I have already sent my absentee ballot, the first time I could since 2008 after Stephen “Fred Rose” Harper stole my vote.  My ballot was a card with instructions to “write the candidate’s name” in the box given.  I used my manual typewriter because I didn’t want to be ineligible by being illegible. 

I voted to prevent Scheer stupidity, not how I wanted to vote.  In the riding I’m required to vote in, it’s a two horse race between a Clown and a Liberal, no serious third candidate to vote for.  I would rather have had a better option.

Polls taken on October 18th suggest that this will likely be a Liberal minority government with either or both the NDP and Bloc Quebecois as coalition partners.  If either happens, I can live with it.  The BQ may press the Liberals to do what’s best for Quebec (i.e. “give us $$$!!!”), but in overall national policy they would be acceptable.
Canada direly needs to get rid of this “first past the post” nonsense. A party that gets 30% of the vote (both the Liberals and Clowns in current polling) should NEVER have a majority government.  Either enact proportional representation or a “first and second choice” option.  If candidates got three points for being first choice and one for second choice (no requirement to make a second choice), and the total points decided the winner, it would be better than the current system.  The BQ (7% in the polls) may get 10-30 seats because they’re all concentrated in Quebec, but the Greens (polling at 8% nationally) will likely get no seats instead of the 25-27 seats they deserve (8 * 3.38) because their votes will be spread out.  The NDP have regional strongholds, like the BQ, so they should get a significant number of seats.

Comments

  1. fledanow says

    I’m hoping the NDP will hold the balance of power. I’m hoping the Cons eat their own. The Libs lost me (again, as always) when they broke their promise for electoral reform. I voted for the Libs once in my life because I was so worried we might get another Cons gov’t, and Trudeau has been so ineffectual he could saddle us with the Cons again just by being a fool. My district will either return to the NDP or (maybe) return to the Libs. It’s the bigger picture that frightens me.

  2. Rob Grigjanis says

    I voted Monday. Like you, my riding has no serious NDP or Green support, so strategic it is.

    This was the first time I can remember a Conservative candidate doing door-to-door in my neighbourhood. Glad he stopped by – I got to tell him, over about 20 minutes, what I think of his party. A PPC guy came by too. I just laughed.

  3. voyager says

    I voted in the advance polls and, like Chigau, I also did not vote conservative.
    I agree that the “first past the post system” needs to be scrapped. It’s one of the reasons I voted for Trudeau last time – he promised to fix it during the previous election and then, following consultations that said it was a good idea, he changed his mind. Funny how that works.