You might be shocked to know that I am not a big Stephen Harper fan ;)! This is based on the fact that I don’t share many of the ideals that are espoused by the Conservative Party of Canada. But more importantly, I think that there are many compelling reasons based on this government’s past record that deems it necessary for a change on October 19.
My fear though is that there are too many viable options to replace Harper. And if too many peoples’ votes are spread across all those options, vote splitting can occur and “King Stevie” can get re-elected despite only having a small % of the overall vote.
So what should I do? The party that most closely shares my values is the Green Party. Of all the major party leaders, I feel Elizabeth May would make the best prime minister. Years ago, I even volunteered and went door to door to campaign for the green party candidate in a by-election and when we still had the house, the green party sign was always on the front lawn during election time.
But here’s a confession, despite my public support for the Greens, I would often cast my vote for someone else because of the “Anyone but Harper” mentality. Whoever the polls said had the best of chance of defeating the conservative candidate, I would vote for them. Isn’t this awful?
I only feel partially responsible though…
True democracy should be about every vote counting for something. Our present past-the-post system does not allow for that. We should all vote in favour of someone rather than vote against someone else. That’s why we need proportional representation. Even if a rep-by-pop system resulted in a Harper government or a minority government where the parties would have to work together, at least my vote would mean something. Maybe even more people would come out to vote.
But for now, we’re stuck with the system we’ve got. So on October 19, should I vote Green or should I listen to the polls and vote for the party that has the best chance of unseating our “Right Honourable” Prime Minister?