Strategic voting is back in the spotlight as Canada races to federal election polls on April 28. However, voters like Justine Abigail Yu are making sure the tactic isn’t just viewed as a matter of preventing an undesirable party from winning, but as an opportunity to drive bold, values-based change.
What is strategic voting?
“Strategic voting usually means voting for a party you think can win — not the one you feel the most aligned with — to block a party you strongly oppose,” Yu, a Toronto-based organizer, explained to Yahoo Canada via email.
“In Canada, people often think it means voting Liberal (instead of the NDP or Greens) to stop the Conservatives, but that’s not always true. It really depends on your riding.”
That local nuance is of vital importance in Canada’s electoral system. Candidates win by first past the post, meaning they achieved a victory by securing the most votes in a riding, not necessarily a majority.
How effective is strategic voting?
Recent Ipsos data revealed the tactic of strategic voting continues to be relevant this election cycle. Moreover, 33 per cent of the survey respondents — who plan to vote Liberal — say they’re doing so to make sure a different party doesn’t win. This figure marks a 13 per cent spike from the 2019 federal election, during which only 20 per cent of survey takers said they took part in strategic voting.
Recent polls also reflect a sizeable expansion for the Liberal and Conservative parties over the number of seats held by them in comparison to polls from 2021. That means smaller third parties — like the NDP and Greens — are bleeding voters, courtesy of strategic voting.
In the 2019 federal election, more than one-third of Canadians voted strategically to stop another party from winning, according to the Leger poll.
Strategic voting as a system often pressures voters to pick the “lesser evil” rather than the candidate best reflecting their values. Yu and her team of organizers in Toronto’s Davenport riding are on a mission to change that mindset.
“Here in Davenport, the Conservatives aren’t even close to winning, so strategically voting for the Liberals isn’t necessary,” she said.
“In the last election, the Liberals beat the NDP by just 76 votes. Ours was the closest race in the country. This is our chance to elect someone who actually shares our values.”
‘Justice for Palestine’ at the heart of strategic voting for Yu
Yu and her team are promoting the use of strategic voting among the voters in her community so they can elect candidates who stand clear and firm on issues of foreign policy, human rights and climate action.
One of the core values that matter most to her Davenport team is “justice for Palestine.” That has meant engaging young voters through viral social media content, subway station leafletting, organizing weekly canvasses and more efforts as part of increasing awareness around the best use of the voting tactic.
“For me and my Davenport for Palestine neighbours, voting for a bold, pro-Palestine candidate isn’t a risk — it’s a powerful, strategic move,” the founder of Living Hyphen — a community and multimedia platform that explores the experiences of hyphenated Canadians — said.
Youth ‘feeling disillusioned with electoral politics’: Yu shares feedback from audience
One of Yu’s Instagram videos, in collaboration with Davenport for Palestine, on demystifying strategic voting garnered close to 200,000 views with more than 2,000 reshares online in the week leading up to this interview on April 16. Yu noted the video helps clarify for a lot of Canadians that voting Liberal isn’t always the strategic vote.
“We know that many Canadians are extremely frustrated with the Liberals who have done next to nothing to end our government’s complicity in the genocidal violence happening in Palestine while also having to strategically vote for them this election to prevent a Conservative win,” she said.
The positive response from her audience is a testament for Yu who believes the feedback shows that Canadian youth have an appetite for subtle conversations around the process of casting votes and making a difference while doing so.
“We know that a lot of young people are feeling disillusioned with electoral politics. … We also know that they care deeply about what is happening in Palestine,” Yu shared.
Yu added she believes the term “strategic voting,” although not new to Canada, has too often been co-opted by narratives that reinforce the “two-party system” while limiting “real change.” However, in her version of strategic voting, Canadians use the tactic to not just prevent harm but to build momentum for transformative change.
“We should remember that it is also strategic to elect progressive champions to advocate in Ottawa for the issues that matter to us, and to hold the Liberal government to account.”
