Strategic voting.

Executive Summary:

I do it, but there's a reason, so piss off already.

Fulsome Report:

Our system of representation is... well, it's better than the American system, for sure, but it could be better.

You've probably seen the CGP Grey's video talking about how idiotic the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system is; if not, it's definitely worth a look. But, if you're too lazy or your clicking-finger is broken, here's an even-briefer example:

Say the Purple Party gets 51% of the votes in every district, and the Yellow Party gets 49% of the votes -- a strong second-place showing, for sure, and a lot of people clearly want Yellow. But, since Yellow finished second every time, and Purple was FPTP every time, 51% of the voters get 100% of the seats, and their choice gets 100% of the power. All those Yellow voters, and there are a lot of 'em, get zero say in their government.

This is a pretty extreme situation, but y'know, it doesn't take too many votes in total, across the country, to tip an election one way or another. And that ain't right.

You have to ask yourself a question: do you compromise your ideals slightly and vote for who you wouldn't mind winning, or do you stick to your guns and take a chance that the one you really don't want to win, might win?

Our system could be worse, obviously; we have Elections Canada out there, drawing boundaries more-or-less fairly, rather than the idiotic gerrymandering they have in the US. (I still can't believe partisan committees get to redraw boundaries there. That is absolutely asinine.) But, you know, if the Cons could kneecap EC in any way, they probably would, given the chance.

I still haven't figured out whether having 3+1+1 major-ish parties makes this problem worse or better than the US system with its two-party system. But I'm sure as hell not going to feel guilty for voting strategically, until we bring in a proportional system. (For the record, I voted for proportional representation in Ontario a few years back, when it was put to a vote.)

To make things a little more specific:

My riding went Conservative in 2011, and I hate that prick. The Liberal candidate, who was once the MP, is a decent guy and I like him well enough. The federal Liberal party, well... I mean, we could do worse; ideally (for me), the Dippers win and Mulcair becomes the PM. But, in my riding, the NDP have practically zero chance of winning -- they're polling in the single-digits, which is very weird these days anywhere in the country -- and so the Liberals have the best chance of beating the Cons around here.

Jeez, how long is this election? Dammit.