Last Updated on: 16th October 2016, 07:00 pm
I’ve only readone storyabout strategic voting this election season, and I’ve already had enough of them.
I’m positive we’ve covered this before, but apparently it needs repeating, so here goes.
There is no such thing as a wasted vote. Every vote, unless you find yourself voting in a rigged election like the ones found in dictatorships and the United States, counts. The only way you can waste your vote is to spoil your ballot. You mark your X, you stuff it in the box, it gets counted. No need for a whole lot of strategy there. In fact, the only planning required is how you’re going to get to the polling station and who’s getting the magic X when you do, which brings me to the second important point. Since every vote counts, what exactly is the point of not voting for somebody because they’re not gonna win? Listen, kids. If you don’t vote for ’em, they ain’t gonna win. If you like the Green Party and hate the Conservatives, just vote for the goddamn Green Party, would ya? They aren’t electing an MP based on your vote for a Liberal candidate. A vote for the Greens whether or not they have a snowballs chance of actually winning anything is still a non-vote for Harper and company. Based on your voting for people who aren’t him, he’s one vote further away from majority rule, just like he would be if you voted for somebody who isn’t him but still isn’t who you truly want. By voting with your head and your heart, you’re at the very least playing spoiler, and at most you’ll be the riding that elects somebody that wasn’t supposed to get elected.
Your vote is a statement about what matters to you, not what matters to somebody else in another part of the country. No amount of networking and studying the polls will ever change that. So please, I’m begging you, spend the time you’re currently wasting on this non-science strategy crap on following the issues and convincing people that your choice is the right choice. If you want change, that’s the only way you’re ever going to get it.