Strategic voting dishonest
After reading Catherine Worthingham’s letter in the Oct. 9 edition of the Citizen, I was left with an all too familiar disturbed feeling about the motivations of many Canadians.
This election is too important to play games with. Strategic voting is a practice no honest Canadian should engage in. Voting your convictions and expressing your genuine political belief is what our democracy is all about, and yes we are still a democracy. A strategic vote, used to keep the Liberal government in power, even though you are an NDP or Green supporter is the height of sham politics.
Strategic voting is just a dishonest way to bolster your political special interest group even though the largest voting block may go to another group. It is both a despicable and dangerous practice. In Europe it is used to keep rightful parties out of government and leads to endless ineffectual coalitions that get nothing done, hence the paralysis you see on the political scene there. We do not need that here in Canada where the people now hunger for real and effective government after four years of social engineering and incompetence.
This narrative also plays into the increasingly tiring and inaccurate falsehood, of the “Evil Conservatives” so often used but the left. Not only is it false, but it is spiteful and petty. The Conservatives have an environmental platform based on real solutions to the problem rather than unrealistic, unobtainable goals. Please also look into history and examine the contributions of Conservatives like John Diefenbaker who made real and lasting civil rights and social advances. Before you perpetuate the current hysterical meme of “Evil Conservatives” you should look at the facts.
Lastly, as Ms. Worthington pointed out, we should all vote, but we should have the courage to do so honestly and from the source of our own convictions, not as part of some political game.
Perry Foster
Duncan