In the upcoming Federal election where is your vote going?

[Mr. Analog]

(Parties ordered by number of MPs as of October 8, 2015)

Let's keep the dialog civil, there are no wrong votes

[Tom]

I disagree on the no wrong vote comment. I mean I guess its better than not voting, but yeah.... Theres at least one party with which I will consider your sanity if you vote for them. not goku. just saiyan.

[Mr. Analog]

I disagree on the no wrong vote comment. I mean I guess its better than not voting, but yeah.... Theres at least one party with which I will consider your sanity if you vote for them. not goku. just saiyan.

If your compass aligns with a particular party then, for you, the vote is the right vote and not up for debate.

If you think someone is "insane" for voting for a particular party then you are attacking the person based on your own partisan feelings. Not cool

[Tom]

I disagree on the no wrong vote comment. I mean I guess its better than not voting, but yeah.... Theres at least one party with which I will consider your sanity if you vote for them. not goku. just saiyan.

If your compass aligns with a particular party then, for you, the vote is the right vote and not up for debate.

If you think someone is "insane" for voting for a particular party then you are attacking the person based on your own partisan feelings. Not cool

I have no problems with most people's beliefs. That said, theres a certain party that does not follow what people expect of it based on its name. They have a lot of followers, people that could consider themselves of that party, except the party itself routinely goes against everything they claim to stand for.

[Thorin]

... yarr?

[Thorin]

Also, I did not realize there were that many parties with candidates running.  I wonder how many have enough candidates running that if they were all voted in, they could be a majority government...

[Lazybones]

Also, I did not realize there were that many parties with candidates running.  I wonder how many have enough candidates running that if they were all voted in, they could be a majority government...

There are only 3 parties that have enough popularity to form government realistically and that is Conservatives, Liberals and the NDP. The green party may have enough candidates but not enough popular support. The BLOCK is niche to begin with but are capable of winning a fair number of seats but not form government.

As far as voting based only on BEST MATCH for a party, remember we have a First Past the Post system... This works fine when there are two parties / candidates however it also means that if there are 3 popular options that someone with a popularity in the low 30% range can both win the seat and represent a community, where as 60% of that community voted for someone else.

Because of this I think strategic voting makes sense in the current system, and working to torwards parties that want to change the system (Liberals and NDP) makes sense. If we want elected officials to better represent their communities we need a system that accounts for more than two popular parties.

[Thorin]

first-past-the-post can be mitigated through the simple concept of vote-strength: each representative has as much power as the percentage of votes they received.  For example:

representative A was voted in with 32% of the total votes in their riding
representative B was voted in with 74% of the total votes in their riding
representative C was voted in with 49% of the total votes in their riding

When voting on a bill, rep A's vote is worth .32, rep B's vote is worth .74, and rep C's vote is worth .49.

This is then much strengthened by having the top two (by vote count) candidates from each riding get a spot.  Now the example becomes:

representative A1 was voted in with 32% of the total votes in their riding
representative A2 was voted in with 31% of the total votes in their riding
representative B1 was voted in with 74% of the total votes in their riding
representative B2 was voted in with 10% of the total votes in their riding
representative C1 was voted in with 49% of the total votes in their riding
representative C2 was voted in with 35% of the total votes in their riding

Now you'll start seeing that parties have power much more aligned with the popular vote.

And people will see that there's a point to voting, whereas for a long time now people in Alberta (for instance) have felt it's useless to vote because most of the province will be Tory blue thanks to first-past-the-post.

[Mr. Analog]

Yup, I got the list from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_parties_in_Canada

Code Select Expand

Name MPs Most MPs
Conservative Party of Canada 162 166 / 308
New Democratic Party 94 103 / 308
Liberal Party of Canada 36 179 / 245
Green Party of Canada 2 2 / 308
Bloc Qu?b?cois 2 54 / 295
Forces et D?mocratie 2 2 / 308


I think the most damaging campaign I've seen so far (or it might be intentional?) is the "ABC" (anybody but CPC), to me it is designed to split the vote among undecided voters, which even if massively successful would divide a group that's unlikely to vote in the first place

There is no one party that really connects 100% with my perspective and once again I feel like I'm picking the least worst.

[Tom]

Yup, I got the list from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_parties_in_Canada

Code Select Expand

Name MPs Most MPs
Conservative Party of Canada 162 166 / 308
New Democratic Party 94 103 / 308
Liberal Party of Canada 36 179 / 245
Green Party of Canada 2 2 / 308
Bloc Qu?b?cois 2 54 / 295
Forces et D?mocratie 2 2 / 308


I think the most damaging campaign I've seen so far (or it might be intentional?) is the "ABC" (anybody but CPC), to me it is designed to split the vote among undecided voters, which even if massively successful would divide a group that's unlikely to vote in the first place

There is no one party that really connects 100% with my perspective and once again I feel like I'm picking the least worst.

I completely agree with that. It's terrible

A friend of mine said a while back, he wishes there was a fiscally conservative, socially liberal party. I was like WANT (but don't know if not against some fundamental law of the universe).

[Darren Dirt]

first-past-the-post can be mitigated through the simple concept of vote-strength: each representative has as much power as the percentage of votes they received.  For example:

representative A was voted in with 32% of the total votes in their riding
representative B was voted in with 74% of the total votes in their riding
representative C was voted in with 49% of the total votes in their riding

When voting on a bill, rep A's vote is worth .32, rep B's vote is worth .74, and rep C's vote is worth .49.

This is then much strengthened by having the top two (by vote count) candidates from each riding get a spot.  Now the example becomes:

representative A1 was voted in with 32% of the total votes in their riding
representative A2 was voted in with 31% of the total votes in their riding
representative B1 was voted in with 74% of the total votes in their riding
representative B2 was voted in with 10% of the total votes in their riding
representative C1 was voted in with 49% of the total votes in their riding
representative C2 was voted in with 35% of the total votes in their riding

Now you'll start seeing that parties have power much more aligned with the popular vote.

And people will see that there's a point to voting, whereas for a long time now people in Alberta (for instance) have felt it's useless to vote because most of the province will be Tory blue thanks to first-past-the-post.

^ this kind of offering is what I expect in threads that start like this one did. Usually it takes a couple of days though. Well done Thorin!

[Darren Dirt]

I just watched this HILARIOUS video summarizing the low-lights of the first debate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OyBXEF6LMI

...is there an independent candidate I haven't heard about? Because... yikes.

Although since I am in the "middle class"... and that West Wing music at the end, so convincing... ARGH, WAIT, PANDERING! :sigh:

[Tom]

I'd have voted Green if it wasn't for the fact they have absolutely no chance of making a dent in the PC armor.

I voted on Saturday. Hopefully it goes well and we wont be stuck with the current government for another 4 years.

[Mr. Analog]

Fhaha

[Tom]

I'd make one for the Pusher and Shover robots, but we already have that party.