Strategic Voting:British Columbia

In British Columbia ridings many of the races are fairly competitive. Often the Conservatives have won because of a split among progressive voters. Choosing to support the most popular progressive candidate ie Liberal, NDP or Green would defeat the Tories in the ridings of Burnaby- Douglas, Burnaby- New Westminster, Cariboo- Prince George, Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca, Fleetwood- Port Kells, Kamloops- Thompson- Cariboo, Nanaimo- Alberny, New Westminster- Coaquitlam, Okanagan- Shuswap, Pitt Meadows- Maple ridge- Mission, Port Moody- Westwood- Port Coaquitlam, Saanich- Gulf Islands, South Surrey- White Rock- Cloverdale, Surrey North, Vancouver Island North, Vancouver Quadra,and West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast- Sea to Sky Country. Check your riding to see the best bet for defeating the Tories.

Especially important is to defeat Minister Gary Lunn in Saanich- Gulf islands, who strongly supports oil at the expense of the environment and who regards nuclear safety as an after thought.

Until we get proportional representation and one vote really does count, strategic voting and vote swapping initiatives have to be part of the environmentalist's political tool box.

Strategic voting: Alberta

Over at Vote For the Environment, they have some suggestions for avoiding vote splitting in the ridings of Edmonton Center and Edmonton-Strathcona. However, several other ridings in Alberta could swing away from the Conservatives if folks voted en masse for one opposition candidate.

Calgary Center, Calgary Centre-North, Edmonton East all could defeat the Tory incumbent if the opposition voters parked their vote with the strongest opposition candidate- in these cases Hee Sung Kim with the Liberals, John Chan with the NDP and Stephanie Laskoski of the Liberals, respectively.

Vote for the environment

The idea of vote swapping- strategically voting so that the worst party wont get in- is the idea behind Votefortheenvironment.ca. This site suggests where it is possible to defeat the Conservative party, by voting for it's strongest opposition. This position is taken because only the Conservative party opposes strong environmental policies.

Facebook has a similar group that advocates vote swapping the Anti-Harper Vote Swap Canada.

These projects are necessary because Canada still uses a first-past-the-post voting system. Candidates can win a seat even though most citizens voted against them. A political party can get a majority government, even though most people voted for other candidates.
Groups who want to see fairer representation, such as Fair Vote Canada, advocate some form of proportional representation. Under such a system a party that gets 36% of the popular vote, gets 36% of the seats in the house of commons. Under the current system, the Conservative party won 36% of the vote but received 40% of the seats in Parliament.

Amateur hour on the 2008 election trail; Tories asleep at the wheel.

What do you call a Conservative with a blog? A Liberal party supporter.

It's no wonder most Conservative candidates aren't allowed to speak to anyone.

Canada and Europe; Will Canada join the EU?

I'm all for opening of trade and labour agreements with the Europeans. But why is only the Globa & Mail and Andrew Coyne reporting this. This plan calls for a restructuring of our economy that far exceeds that of NAFTA. Unlike NAFTA, it also balances Canada between the USA and Europe, rather than selling our interests to our neighbours to the south.

More In-and-Out; Tories bully their own into silence

The Tory brass referred to their own people in crude fashion, bullying their own people who questioned the In-and-Out campaign finance scandal.

When is anyone going to point out that this scheme attempts to defraud tax payers, as well as defying Election Laws?

The Green Shift explained

Ok, I'll cut your income tax, but you'll have to pay more at the pump.

What is so bloody complex about that? If you sell the Hummer and get a Toyota, you save money. If you reduce your gas consumption, you pollute less and save even more money.

Less income tax= more money in your pocket.
Higher gas tax = reduction in gas consumption= less pollution.

In the long run, this will encourage energy saving and investment in alternative energy sources.

Only journalists could have trouble explaining this.
(oddly enough, this policy is completely inline with fiscal conservative economic theory- but wont boost the bottom line for BIG OIL- Stephen Harper's closest friends)