Let the majority speak

Until now, I've been overwhelmed by the news that 40% of us still want Harper to run our country despite everything (the Youtube video pretty much says it all).  But you know, that still means that a majority--60% of us--do not want Harper running the country.  And many of us feel more passionately than we have ever felt about an election.  So it's time to stop feeling trapped by the numbers.  If we play our cards right, we might just be able to harness those numbers to our own "majority".  It could happen.

Three Hundred Eight is a constantly updated site showing the voting patterns in ridings across the country.  From a cursory glance, close to 50 seats appear vulnerable to strategic voting.  That's a lot of seats.  Thirty-three of these seats are currently projecting Tory wins; some are very tenuous Liberal or NDP leaning.  All of them could have significantly altered outcomes if the supporters of parties out of contention would agree to "hold their nose and vote."  And the latest in strategic voting aides are sites such as votepair.ca and Avaaz based on the premise that if you know your vote won't count in the riding you're in, offer it to the party for whom it can count in exchange for someone elsewhere in the country agreeing to vote for your party where it will count.  You register, stating how you want to vote and which parties you are willing to vote for, and then you are matched with a voting partner, where possible.

"Weird" is how one Liberal party worker described it when I spoke with her today.  Are we really comfortable swapping our votes?  How does it avoid abuse and fraud?  Well, it does involve an act of faith that your partner will honour your request, but there's really nothing to be gained in not doing so, except, I suppose, a tiny increase in the popular vote, which as we know is next to worthless politically.  Open in theory to all parties, in practice there aren't many people willing to swap with Conservatives.  And if you try to hide which party you really want to vote for, there's no point.  Your "deceitful" vote is still only one vote.   But the potential to double the impact of your vote, especially where it won't count otherwise, has considerable appeal.

Just think, if the Liberals and New Democrats in Saanich BC agreed to vote Green in exchange for Greens returning the favour to the NDP in, say, Burnaby-Douglas and to the Liberals in Kitchener Centre, we could a) give a much-deserved seat to Elizabeth May, and b) wrest three ridings from the Tories.

We, the people,  could coalesce to achieve our mutual goals.