ROTHENBURGER: Will we vote with our heads or our hearts in this election?

Jagmeet Singh of the NDP urges people not to vote Liberal just to keep the Conservatives out of power. But the Liberals contend that voters of other parties should switch to voting for Liberals to defeat Conservatives in close ridings. The Green Party hopes to flip votes that would normally go to the NDP.

Canadians aren’t fiercely loyal to parties the way, for example, Americans or Brits are. Thirty per cent of Canadian voters — several million of them — have no alignment with political parties at all.

Contrast that to only eight per cent in the U.S. and 20 per cent (the most recent figure I could find) in the U.K. This inevitably leads to polling that includes a question about how committed respondents are to a particular party. The party with the lowest percentage of committed voters is seen as being at a disadvantage even if that party is doing well in terms of overall support.

But unaffiliated voters are the ones who carefully consider individual candidates, qualities of the leaders, and party platforms in making their decision, rather than electability.

A poll after the 2019 election showed almost a third of voters cast their ballots strategically.

There’s disagreement over whether strategic voting works. On the one side, those who indulge in it contend that our first-past-the-post system, with its narrow margins of victory, means strategic voting can make enough difference to decide outcomes. They present vote counts that purport to show strategic voting can determine who the government will be.

Strategicvoting.ca, for example, contends that strategic voting, if done in an organized manner, could make a major difference in outcomes.

Those who say it doesn’t work will tell you that organized strategic voting campaigns that target certain ridings have very spotty records of success.

Those who favour proportional representation over first-past-the-post suggest changing the electoral system would get rid of strategic voting because the outcome would better reflect what Canadians want and provide representation to small parties.

But first-past-the-post is a superior system for ensuring regional representation rather than favouring big-population centres. The current system doesn’t mean we have to, or should, vote strategically, only that we’re tempted by it.

I’m of the view that holding our noses and voting for someone we think is second best, in order to defeat someone we think is the worst, is no way to run a country. The fact that a third of voters cast their ballots strategically in the last election means a third of all Canadian voters voted for someone they didn’t want to see elected.

Strategic voting probably cancels itself out, anyway. For one thing, it depends on being right about who’s likely to win, and that’s not always obvious. By the time we shift our vote, and somebody else shifts theirs, it’s a draw.

The old-fashioned way is better — assess the candidate, the issues, platforms, the party and the leaders and make a tough decision. It’s much more satisfying.

We often say we should act with our heads, not our hearts. When it comes to voting, though, in my view we should vote according to which candidate and party we want to lead us, not based on calculations about the one we don’t.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: Will we vote with our heads or our hearts in this election?

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