Printed Matters

Lately, we hear a lot of talk about strategic voting. That is the practise of voting for a less-than-ideal candidate in the hopes of blocking some other especially abhorrent choice from succeeding. In recent federal elections in Canada, for example, that has manifested as voters on the left pitching their weight behind the strongest left-leaning candidate in their riding to avoid vote-splitting on the left, and to thwart the Conservative.

But there are only two possible outcomes of any attempt to swing election results through strategic voting: success or failure. I will argue both outcomes are undesirable, that one is more likely than the other, and that the more likely outcome hurts the strategic voter. A sort of political Pascal’s Wager, if you will. Continue Reading »