Poll from Nanos Research
The G&M; has Elizabeth May endorsing strategic voting for close-race ridings again today, mentioning both VoteforEnvironment and DemocraticSpace as sites to go to for advice/info.
VoteforEnvironment is still endorsing May in Central Nova against Peter MacKay, even though the Ekos, Decima and Nanos polls listed there all show her running a close third place behind the NDP candidate. Come on, guys, get it together — these are your own rules.
Would be very peculiar if this means Greens are expected to not vote for May in her own riding on top of her having done the deal with Dion to not run a Lib there, but last time Lizzie was quoted as coming out in favour of strategic voting, she says she was misquoted, so we’ll have to see. Her oft-stated position is that the most important thing is to stop the Cons.
I was part of a two hour radio show on SPP and the election today, with local candidates giving their thoughts. Unsurprisingly the Libs and Cons both declined to participate.
Thursday night Update : Yup, it’s happened again. May says she did not endorse SV.
Received from Adriane Carr, Green Party, 2pm:
“Media reports and suggestions from other parties that I am urging strategic voting across the country or that backroom deals are being made are complete nonsense,” Ms. May said. “As I have said over and over, strategic voting is generally not a sound strategy at all and I do not support it. Canada needs to elect Green MPs.”
Ms. May was responding in particular to the headline and opening of a Globe and Mail story that directly contradicts what she said to the reporter.
“I clearly said that voting strategically as advice is pretty useless. I also said: ‘Suggesting one should jump away from the Green Party is very bad advice indeed.’
“I want to do politics in a much different way, with collaboration, civility and respect. But I am not making deals with other parties, and the Greens are not in discussions with other parties.
“I will say it once again so absolutely no one can be confused or misled: I want Canadians to elect Green MPs.”
The G&M; had reported May as saying:
“As the leader of a grassroots party, I’m not in a position to yank anyone, or tell anyone what to do. I just think Canadians need to take a long hard look at the potential here to get rid of the government of Stephen Harper and all that it represents . . .”
“That includes Greens as elected MP’s, and to make that change it includes Stéphane Dion as a minority prime minister.”
She said it’s a bad idea to leave the Greens in most ridings in the country, but that it would make sense in a small number of ridings where there are tight races.”
I dunno. If the above G&M; quote is accurate, it clearly is a limited endorsement for SV. If that’s what she said. This misquoting business happens a lot to May. Hard to say whose fault that is.
Peterborough Politics has background on the Green reaction.
– Alison@Creekside
According the October 10th polls it’s close between the NDP and Green in Central Nova. Strictly speaking, voteforenvironment.ca should be suggesting the NDP candidate for strategic voters, but it’s sufficiently close that for entertainment’s sake if nothing else I’m glad they’re endorsing May.
I’d also like to see her commit to strategic voting. She has commented on how the voting system is broken, where it’s possible for a party to get a majority of the seats even though they got a minority of the votes, thanks to votes being split on one side or the other, currently the left (come on Joe Clark, resurrect the Progressive Conservative party and split the right!).
Strategic voting is the only logical response to the broken voting system. Jack Leighton’s I’m-going-to-be-PM shtick is a joke and everyone knows it. If the left really cares about the country, they should come out in the open with recommendations for strategic voting, or a simple endorsement of voteforenvironment.ca.