[kwlug-disc] Asking questions of candidates during the election.

[Paul Nijjar]

On Fri, Apr 01, 2011 at 12:20:21PM -0400, Russell McOrmond wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 11:29 PM, Darcy Casselman <dscassel at gmail.com> wrote:
> Curious if people would agree with these tweets from Matthew Skala
> 
> http://twitter.com/mattskala/status/53802851654307840
> http://twitter.com/mattskala/status/53805332262174720
> 
>   "@russellmcormond @peterbraid owes his incumbency to vote split by
> MacLellan of Greens - who courted #Waterloo geek vote by opposing #C32

That is part of the reason, but in my opinion it is not the whole
story. Here are some other factors: 

- Both the NDP and Green candidates were strong. If they had been weak
  candidates they would not have done as well as they did even if they
  did say they would oppose C-32. 
- That horrible strategic voting website that was going around last
  election marked the Kitchener-Waterloo riding as being "safe" for
  Telegdi, and people believed that. Then they voted for what they
  believed in.  
- In this riding (and much of Canada) people vote less for individual
  candidates and more for parties. That is not as strong in KW (since
  Telegdi has a history of standing up against his party) but it is a
  huge factor.
- Our voting system does not allow people to order their choices (but
  that opens another can of worms that I would rather avoid in this
  forum). 

- Paul 

-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org