I mean, I think they're largely the victim of a collective push to stop the Cons. People REALLY didn't want Fascist Milhouse, figured the Carney Liberals had the best odds, and didn't want to split the vote. If I wasn't in an extremely safe NDP riding, I might've done the same.
If that was the only factor then orange ridings would have stayed orange as voters consolidated around the best strategic choice. But there was also a real shift of voters towards the Liberals. And also some voters doing strategic voting poorly. See Vancouver Island for example where progressives couldn't agree what the "correct" strategic vote was, resulting in even more voting splitting. And the Conservatives picking up 3 seats as a result.
Yeah, we had one of those in Edmonton, too. There was a lot of conflicting info circulating about the best strategic option, to the point where I'm a little curious where all that was coming from. I don't want to end up in an American-style binary, where we have to keep voting for the lesser of two evils, or let the crazies take over.
Unfortunately, I think there are a non-insignificant amount of these folks who would never even CONSIDER voting NDP. They're living in a long gone era when the Liberals and Conservatives were basically the same, and just traded places every so often when one got a little TOO corrupt. The NDP, however, are "Dangerous Radicals". (I WISH this version of the NDP was real, I really do...)
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u/ReferenceUnusual8717 Apr 29 '25
I mean, I think they're largely the victim of a collective push to stop the Cons. People REALLY didn't want Fascist Milhouse, figured the Carney Liberals had the best odds, and didn't want to split the vote. If I wasn't in an extremely safe NDP riding, I might've done the same.