Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathgod
Following politics for most of my life has brought me to the realization that the only power that a person realistically has at the ballot box is to use their vote as a harm reduction mechanism. That is, you look at the parties that have a realistic chance of winning, figure out which one of those would do the least amount of good for society as a whole, and you vote for the party most likely to defeat them. Simple harm reduction, nothing more, nothing less.
Bringing about changes that go beyond that, involves winning over hearts & minds, and convincing people to support certain policies. For example, there was once a time where it was believed that the only way to get climate action was to elect the Green party. Then, as time went on and more people understood the need for urgent action, the larger parties adopted carbon pricing into their policy platforms. This is how social progress happens - it's not always about electing the "correct" politician or party.
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IMO you have oversimplified the process… yet captured the essence of how Canada seems to be set up. I’d love to argue the minutiae and get deep in policies (who am I kidding, to be real). Fact is there isn’t actual balance, we may not like a specific leader but their party aligns best, or simply you don’t want XYZ to win so instead of voting for your preferred Mr.6thPlace (which is like wasting a vote especially if you strongly dislike #1) you consider voting for #2 or 3 and hope that works out better.
For this past election… not enough people voted (less than 2/4 actually) and so Mr Socks (aka Turdeau) remained in place despite not even getting the popular vote. At least it’s a minority government so hopefully UCP and NDP will hold them to some account although NDP didn’t provide any opposition it seems the last few years.