You know, it sounds like some of you don't realize that not voting for a party because they're unlikely to win is
not an unreasonable idea and it's called strategic voting (sometimes, tactical voting). Now, you may want to vote your conscience and vote for whomever you support the most and that's your perogative but it will increase the chances that your vote will become ineffective.
You see, in Canada, we use the
First Past the Post electoral system. Strangely, it is truly a system that throws away information!
It's an all-or-nothing system where your vote and, thus, your opinion isn't remembered unless you win so there's great incentive for you to win! So much so that, yeah, perhaps you'll vote for the second best guy because he has a chance of winning and your vote might make a difference, instead of voting for someone unpopular and having your vote nullified and effecting no change...
If we were using a more
proportional system then we'd have more of an incentive to vote our conscience and forget about strategy. Something I would very much like to do...