In an initial 3 target ridings, appealing to all voters to help save the planet by voting for the candidate most likely to win in their riding. In one riding, we'll be supporting an NDP candidate, in another a Liberal, in another a Green. E ven just a small shift in strategic or "smart voting" to favour the most popular progressive candidate will likely win.
There's so much at stake, and no time to lose, let's pull out all the stops for Canada, and for the world.
PS - Canadian Avaaz members have a long record of campaigning against bad environmental policies, from calling out on a failure to implement the Kyoto Protocol, to challenging wrecking tactics at the Bali summit. In our online poll, 90% of Avaaz members strongly opposed a majority government.
PSS - Here are some links to more information:
Avaaz strategic voting campagne
www.avaaz.org
Green party leader Elizabeth May calls for 'strategic voting' across party lines to stop Harper:
http://www.thestar.com/FederalElection/article/505642
Straight.com writer analyzes the stakes of the Canadian election for the world:
http://www.straight.com/article-163371/election-planet
This site shows that at a national level, strategic or smart voting will benefit all the opposition parties and prevent a Majority government:
http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/
4 Comments
I just gave $50 to Avaaz for this campaign. I think it's brilliant. I love their tri-partisan strategy and would happily vote swap with anyone who will vote for Elizabeth in Nova Scotia. I live in Vancouver Centre where Hedy Fry has the strongest chance of beating Lorne Mayencourt. I'd prefer to vote Green but will vote swap for an NDP or Liberal vote.
peace
Justin Tilson
http://www.voteforenvironment.ca is an excellent initiative! This needs to be promoted as much as possible. Tell your friends, passit on to your family members.
the contact person for vote for environment (very close to the title of this) is a Liberal staffer - that's why there's only one riding where Green is given a chance in their "analysis" - ncludng the one that has so far had the highest % of Green vote in Canada.
I think it's a cynical partisan exploitation of Dr. Suzuki's site and intention
Since Anne FS has made the same comment in response to a number of different posts, I hope I can be forgiven for giving the same response that I've given to her other posts.
Like Anne FS, I was originally sceptical about what appeared to be a Liberal bias in the www.voteforenvironment.ca website recommendations. But I've watched as what was originally a Liberal recommendation for Hedy Fry in the Vancouver Centre riding changed to a Vote with your Heart recommendation as the polling data changed, and it became clear that the Conservative candidate was polling a distant third. If the website really had a Liberal bias, they could easily have stuck with their original recommendation, or chosen to use different poll data to support a Liberal pick.
So given the urgency to vote out the Harper climate dinasaurs, I think it's worth considering strategic voting this time around, even if that means voting for Liberals in many ridings.
That said, I would much rather vote with my heart all the time, and know that my vote was going to count. I think the Greens have the best platform in this election, but I know that our first-past-the-post electoral system means it is highly unlikely that Green MPs will be elected in more than one or two ridings in the country, despite garnering perhaps 10% or more of the popular vote. So I encourage anyone voting strategically for the environment this time around to consider supporting electoral reform (ie. Fair Vote Canada http://www.fairvote.ca/) so that we don't need to employ this kind of strategy in the future.
Also, if you do vote strategically, the party you would normally have voted for won't get the money from Elections Canada for your vote, so you can always consider donating to that party to make up for the loss of your vote.