Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Canada Votes 2008. Not!

Upon our return from the hotel, Shelley and I exercised our franchise and voted in the federal election. Through VotePair.ca I had arranged to swap my vote with someone in London-Fanshawe. I'm still committed to the left-leaning socialistic side of the political spectrum; while my background in environmental biology might nudge me to the Green Party, the rest of their platform is not so inspiring.

Within our riding, the NDP had not put forth a strong showing or inclination in running a candidate (unnamed for the first few weeks of the campaign, apparently absent from local All-Candidates meeting - so was I, so who am I to judge?, and the campaign manager for another candidate in a neighbouring riding). So I was torn: if I voted NDP, it would be like the party was taking me for granted ... but did I want to strategically vote Liberal?

Moxywoman sent a link to VotePair and I saw this as a way that I could still support the NDP, vote Liberal if I had to (and not feel dirty about it) and feel as if my vote made a difference. So the upshot was that I was matched up with a voter in London-Fanshawe who re-elected the NDP incumbent and I voted Green (which I was prepared to do anyway, given that Stéphane Dion blew his chance at my vote with his comment about NDP coalitions with the Marijuana and Nudist parties).

In the green spirit (and of Ed Begley, Jr. on the Simpsons episode "Homer to the Max"), I rode my bike to the polling station to vote, powered by my own sense of self-satisfaction.

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