Strategic voting website for Liberals, NDP could sour voters, candidate says

A Winnipeg Liberal candidate thinks a national website that encourages "progressives" to vote strategically to steal seats from Conservatives is undemocratic and may disillusion voters.

Winnipeg South Centre and Elmwood-Transcona are the only two Manitoba ridings listed as targets for progressivevotingby strategicvoting.ca, a national site created and operated out of Calgary.

In Elmwood-Transcona, the strategic voting website told people left-of-centre to vote for the NDP, not Liberal candidate Andrea Richardson-Lipon.

"For my fellow Canadians who are being told how to vote, this may disillusion the political process," Richardson-Lipon said. "It may prevent other people from taking the leap into politics who are in it for the right reasons. And to what end? I will always fight for my constituents and put their interests first and if that isn't' strategic,then I don't know what is."

'People need to know they can make a change'

Strategicvoting.ca creator Hisham Abdel-Rahman said the site is getting 6,000 unique hits a day and is getting people more interested in the process, not less.

"It's more important than any one single candidate. It's about the whole progressive base in this country," he said.

Abdel-Rahman, an IT manager in Calgary, made the site prior to the 2008 federal election after the Progressive Conservative Party and the Reform Party coalesced under one right-of-centre brand.

There are other similar sites that also encourage progressives to align,such as Votetogether.ca.

"[Progressives]are not showing up at the polls because they think they won't make a change," he said. "People need to know that they can make a change."

Strategic voting common

Political scientist Christopher Adams said strategicvoting is common and can help people feel their vote makes a bigger impact.

"If people want to make sure a certain party isn't governing, they've got to figure out a strategy for how to make their votes the most effective within their riding," he said.

He said the "brutal truth" is theLiberals have very little chance of winning in Elmwood-Transcona. Traditionally, the seat has been NDP-held, and in the last election, the Liberals only received 1,660 votes.

"I think [Richardson-Lipon]is obviously not happy because it doesn't help the Liberals in Elmwood-Transcona," he said.

It'snot sour grapes, candidate says

"I am not for this for any party," Richardson-Liponsaid. "It just takes away from democracy."

She said in a parliamentary system such as Canada's people vote for MPs to represent them, not parties.

"When you're in caucus, you're not telling me everyone is going to agree," she said. "You'll be able to talk it out represent your riding, then you'll be able to fight for them."

If the NDP and Liberal vote aligned against Conservative Lawrence Toet in 2011, he would have lost Elmwood-Transcona by 1,360 votes, instead he won by 300 votes.Still, Toet is unphased by the website's push.

"I don't get myself worried about what third parties or other parties are doing. My concern is my campaign," he said.

The strategic voting website is encouraging progressives to vote forLiberal candidate Jim Carr in Winnipeg South Centre.

He said he wants people to vote for him for the "right" reasons because they agree on issues, not because of strategic voting.

"My job is to persuade people that a Liberal vote is a good vote," he said.

As of Sept. 9, strategicvoting.ca relied on voting results from the 2011 election. Creator Abdel-Rahman singled out 57 ridings where Liberal and NDP votes outweighed Conservative votes, and the conservative candidate won.

HeadmittedhisdataishistoricalandsaidhewilltweakhisselectionsupuntiltwoweekspriortotheelectionOctober 19.

2011 General Election Results

Elmwood-Transcona

• Conservatives: 15,298
• NDP: 14,998
• Liberal: 1,660
• Combined NDP/Liberal: 16,658

Winnipeg South Centre

• Conservatives: 15,506
• Liberal: 14,784
• NDP: 7,945
• Combined NDP/Liberal: 22,729