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Strategic voting. It’s the dirty little secret about our current electoral system. It’s when voters recognize their preferred party cannot win locally, so vote strategically (or tactically) for another candidate. We like to pretend it doesn’t happen but it does. So we don’t like to talk about it. But it’s a bit like talking to your kids about sex — you might be afraid of putting ideas into their head, but the consequences of them not having the facts could be much worse. It is in this spirit that we publish our “Strategic Voting Guides”.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT STRATEGIC VOTING
DemocraticSPACE does not endorse strategic voting (i.e. where voters cast their ballot for their second choice party to prevent a less favourable party from winning). Moving from our current winner-take-all system to the mixed-member proportional (MMP) system recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly will allow your vote to count equally, regardless of where you live. We urge you to Vote for MMP. But in our current system, strategic voting happens. DemocraticSPACE believes that it is better to make informed choices than misinformed ones. Therefore, this guide is meant to help voters who are thinking of voting strategically.

In order for a riding to qualify for strategic voting, we feel 2 conditions must be met:
1. Your party should be non-competitive in your riding and
2. It must be a tight 2-way race between the other parties

In reality, there are a very small number of ridings where it makes sense to vote strategically (tactically). As the Liberals are competitive in most ridings, there is only 1 riding (Oshawa) where it makes sense to vote strategically (tactically) — where the PCs and NDP are locked ina a close battle. There are 6 ridings for the PCs — very close races between the Liberals and NDP. There are 10 ridings for the NDP — very close races between the Liberals and PCs. And there are 14 ridings for the Greens — very close races between two (or in one case, three) other parties. Here are the potential ridings where voting strategically (tactically) make the most sense (recognizing that we do not support the practice).

LIBERAL – 1 riding
OSHAWA

PC – 6 ridings
HAMILTON EAST-STONEY CREEK
HAMILTON MOUNTAIN
NICKEL BELT
OTTAWA CENTRE
PARKDALE-HIGH PARK
YORK SOUTH-WESTON

NDP – 10 ridings
AJAX-PICKERING
BRAMPTON WEST
DON VALLEY WEST
MISSISSAUGA SOUTH
NIAGARA FALLS
NIPISSING
OAK RIDGES-MARKHAM
RICHMOND HILL
THORNHILL
WILLOWDALE

GREEN – 14 ridings
AJAX-PICKERING
DON VALLEY WEST
HAMILTON EAST-STONEY CREEK
HAMILTON MOUNTAIN
KITCHENER-CENTRE
LONDON-FANSHAWE
MISSISSAUGA SOUTH
NIAGARA FALLS
NIPISSING
OAK RIDGES-MARKHAM
OSHAWA
THORNHILL
YORK SOUTH-WESTON
WILLOWDALE

THIS IS A NON-PARTISAN GUIDE. NO PARTY HAS ENDORSED THIS GUIDE.