Strategic Voting For Positive Change

Beyond doubt, Canadians are desperate for regime change. During the four days of early polls, the number of voters was crazy at many locations. Obviously, the purpose was to vote for the candidates of their choice. Nevertheless, the voters seemed willing to compromise and became strategic voters instead just for ridding the status quo.

No matter what, time is ripe for electing the favourite candidates through “choice-voting” or “strategic-voting.” Mostly the voters are interested to stop the present government from getting re-elected. There is no logical thinking on the recessionary economy, however, a widespread frustration and anti Harper anger created the emotive voters. Trend is to vote for the one who has the best chance of defeating the Conservatives, regardless of political affiliation. Indeed, one must be looking for what is best for Canada. The upcoming Federal election means the best chance for getting rid of Harper regime and electing a government that has no choice but to listen to everyone indiscriminately. This confirms that the voting people are anxiously waiting for the end of “Harper era.”

This explains reasons behind strategic voting: As defeating the Conservatives has always been priority of the dis-satisfied public, so comes the tactical voting. This is exactly where “voters' perception” becomes necessary: Campaigning becomes so crafty and media strategies do focus on affecting voter's perception. They are helpful in shaping the way voters see their candidates.

Disadvantage of strategic voting: If one identifies with one party and is willing to vote differently for another party—there is conscience issue. Voting for something one doesn’t believe in may or may not lead to one’s disappointment in future.

Although, Mulcair did the right thing for standing up for rights and against fear mongering around the niqab and

road to power for the NDP was a strong showing in Quebec and BC with a moderate showing everywhere else, yet due to the xenophobia and demagoguery of the Harper party and the Bloc, the NDP is now struggling in Quebec. With the apparent collapse of NDP support in Quebec, the Liberals will also be scrambling to make some unanticipated gains in Trudeau's home province, which has turned into a four-way race.

Fact of course is, people are not happy with the status quo, they’re not happy with Mr Harper and his divisive politics. They really want change,” Bains said. “They see that Mr Trudeau and the Liberal Party represent that change.”

Moreover, media circles and politicians are endorsing Trudeau, and are busy publishing stories and graphs to back up their decision.

Wow! The Liberals enjoy their Liberal Waves. Justin Trudeau has exceeded the expectation. He is an excellent communicator and very charismatic leader. Encouraged by improving poll results, Trudeau’s advisers believe the party is in a position to draw in voters from both the right and left side of the political spectrum. The Liberal party has invested a lot of time and money into modernizing its technology to identify potential supporters. Canada's Liberal party within reach of election win is now gone into final mode. “Ours is the only plan that will invest now in what Torontonians and what all Canadians need — transit and affordable housing,” he said, adding the Liberal plan to raise taxes on the very rich while reducing middle-class taxes would address the trend of growing income inequality. Mr. Trudeau and the Liberals stand for a much needed positive change in government and a renewed hope for our beautiful country!

Latest polls show widening Liberal lead confirming the Liberals’ momentum. Middle and lower-income Canadians will be better off under a Trudeau government is the claim of the party.

Two crucial battlegrounds, where Liberals believe the election will be won or lost: the Greater Toronto Area and lower mainland British Columbia.

The political crooks should not be allowed to continue governing. Surely, Canada needs a change. Many Canadians are of the view that Liberal govt is the way to go, as Justin Trudeau is more than ready for the job. There is a difference between the economic policies being offered by Liberals and Conservatives. That alone shows how middle and lower-income Canadians will be better off under a Trudeau government. NDP has lost its momentum which is good for Canada as it cannot afford a Socialist government.  Under the NDP, the heavily taxed corporate World goes south of the border. Industries are unionized raising the cost of production leading to endangerment of marketing abroad. The most troublesome with NDP is, money is heavily borrowed to fund the social programs; this adds enormously to the national debt.

Obviously, it’s the Liberal wave now.

Actually, Canada needs an electoral system based on proportional representation, where every voter is represented in parliament. If neglected, the citizens can form a substantial opposition defending the needs of the people all across Canada. This electoral system if implemented would eliminate strategic voting.

But it’s important for every adult citizen to head for polling station on Oct 19 to elect good people for House of Commons.

There is a need to drop the partisan cheerleading and think about what is best for Canada. Voters must analyse before they vote: Previous delivery by the contesting candidates must be judged on the basis of true merit and transparency, fairness and equality; this would maintain spirit of democracy.

A stronger majority government is in the best interest of Canada. We have to stay united for a much needed positive change.

SOURCES:

CBC news, maclean.ca.news, huffingtonpost.ca, news.nationalpost.com, thestar.com.news

 

Only Motivated Voters May End the Evil Genius

Only Motivated Voters May End the Evil Genius

(By Adv Tariq M Javed)

It’s believed that the declining voter turnout actually helps the interested candidates regardless of their past standing. This is why Steven Harper, among other things, has been enjoying his political longevity; he also enjoys being addicted to hit his rivals with attack ads. The negative ads and the related technologies have adversely affected the independence of electoral process in the past polls. He succeeded in keeping the moderate, alienated and apathetic voters out of polling stations. Unfortunately, political wrangling is not free from the polluting gimmicks that are responsible for the resulted questionable democracy at the end. Shockingly, the political marketers usually take undue advantage by employing hardcore propaganda in order to keep potential voters away from the polls.

However, there is always a tipping point where things start turning around for the better. Let’s be optimistic to witness a huge turnout of voters on Oct.19. It seems as if most of those who voted for Harper have now realized his true colors, so they might be going for electing anyone but PC candidates. This time around, there are groups working hard to persuade people from amongst the members of first nations, labour unions, vets, students, and the marginal communities of ethnic background to go for voting.

Nevertheless, political awakening of those who are not well versed in politics is a ‘must,’ because the politically unaware people don't realize that by not voting they are contributing to the sad demise of Canadian democracy.

Thus, voting and creating local groups to build some trust among one another is very important to solve problems.

Manipulation of the naive population: Another misleading factor is when TV channels/stations show brief clips of the candidates looking full of energy, running here and there while smiling for the camera; the super acting is part of the play to impress people regardless of real merit. Another factor is the political parties are mostly backed by the vested interests where general welfare of the people is ignored. No matter what, the sold out biased media is doing its worst to damage the other party as much as possible. This is how, a large majority among the naive members of the community easily falls prey to the power hungry candidates.

Also, the research findings illustrate that it is possible to influence a person’s attitudes toward a political candidate using “survey questions,” which in turn may influence his or her voting behavior.

Despite the traps, an intelligent voter always sense what’s really cooking. Tendency to elect idiots and the abusers is very dangerous indeed.

Older folks: The past experience shows the politicians rarely promise new universities, free tuition, state-subsidized daycare, or other youth-centric goodies, because younger voters don’t care. On the other hand, the older people participate in the electoral process seriously, which is why, politicians talk about balanced budgets and seniors’ benefits.

In 2011, almost 80 per cent of the retirees below age 75 voted. That means the aging baby boomers and seniors swamp younger demographics in this country.

Another important element is that the Canadian Muslims comprise of the largest non-Christian religious denomination in the country. There are more than 1 million Muslims in Canada according to the last census. They make up almost 8 per cent of the population of the Greater Toronto Area, and at least nine suburban ridings could be vulnerable to a concerted voting effort.

“When someone says ‘I don’t think my vote makes a difference’ we can sit down with these statistics and say: ‘Look, you live in this key riding. You could have made a difference if more of you came out to vote.” Muslim turnout is about half that of comparable religious groups, said Sheikh, who thinks they feel politically disengaged after ‘‘a tough decade’’ and what he called “a lot of hate’’ against the community. (Muneeza Sheikh, director of communication with Canadian Muslim Vote, a non-partisan advocacy group).

The ‘stay home’ potential voters need to be smarter and go to the polls to exercise their constitutional right of selecting their independent choice based on their own judgment. They shouldn’t wait for the judicial system to keep people in check to do the right thing or the media to be impartial. Meaning the voting public have to do their own check and balances and avoid voting based on what they hear from the media and the attack ads.

The eligible voters must come out to vote the right candidate based on the party platforms (from head to toe) to ascertain quality of candidates and the program of their respective parties

Governments have been failing to deliver and they are accused of having neglected the general welfare of the future generation by piling up indebtedness. Short term gains followed by long term pain are certainly unacceptable.

If democracy is to remain our preferred system, it’s up to the people to educate themselves for voting only for ethical politicians and parties. The best thing is to evaluate the candidates through asking questions.

Most definitely, the parties that will make decisions and bring legislation allowing for the long-term general welfare including financial health of the populace, are the most fit to govern.

The workings of the municipal, provincial and federal Governments must be dissected and taught with clarity. It must be brought to every student’s attention that Government continually affects every day of their lives and well-being.

There is a need of a level playing field to offer freedom to all candidates to tilt the field in his favor, yet the voters should not be made addicted based on false offers to win them at the polls.

Surely, the truly educated people will have a Government that delivers the best.

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Sources:

(1) thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/08/24/Polarizing-Voter-Tactics/

(2) news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/sixteen-elections-how-federal-parties-are-targeting-segments-of-voters-to-deliver-commons-seats

(3) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_behavior

(4) thestar.com

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