My Campaign

I did a survey about a year ago among 26 friends using the Political Compass. If I were to predict their choice of political party I would say that they would likely vote in the following manner:

10 Conservative

4 Liberal

5 NDP 

1 Bloc Québequois 

6 Green

BUT after taking the Political Compass quiz, they nearly all (23) placed left economically of the NDP and, though in wide array, much more socially liberal than the Conservatives, Liberals and Greens. Thus, my conclusion is that people essentially do not vote based on party platforms, but rather on their preference for a party leader (or dislike of the others) or based on how the people in their culture perceive the party's platforms to be.

My challenge to you all is to take the Political Compass quiz and then to vote for the political party that best represents your views in Parliament.

Another word on this election tomorrow. Our country would be so much more healthy if we had both proportional representation and a run-off for prime minister in a second election with the leaders of the top two parties in the election vying for the position. This is how it works in many countries. My guess is that the result would look something like this:

108 Conservative

80 Liberal

54 NDP

31 Bloc Québecois

27 Green

And the Prime Minister would likely be the Liberal leader as NDP supporters would throw their vote that way rather than towards the conservatives in the run-off. Bloc and Green supporters would probably be split between the Conservatives and Liberals.

Then again, if everyone voted based on their own views and according to party platforms, we'd probably have an NDP majority in the House of Commons.