Category Archives: TRCG

Through Rose-Coloured Glasses

Don’t waste NDP surge opportunity

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(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Friday, April 29, 2011

Co-Founder
Project Democracy
Alice Klien


Still, if we want the country to do well in this election, we all have to do our part. A good outcome is unlikely if we follow Jack’s unfounded advice to forget about strategic voting. A big NDP caucus in a Harper majority government would be a monumental waste of opportunity.

Yes, most of the races in Quebec and in BC and Atlantic Canada that show the NDP as more competitive than it was at the start of the campaign are straight-up contests between two front-runners with no reason to fear that vote-splitting would unnecessarily elect a Conservative.

But there are also about 45 key ridings where informed grassroots voter cooperation is needed to break the Conservative hold on the country.

As I write this, one poll is indicating the Conservative will win only 133 seats; another goes as high as 162 (155 is a majority) for the Conservatives even though it projects 86 seats for the NDP. The strategic vote, from the point of view of defeating the Conservatives, does not favour the NDP, the Liberals or the Bloc or Greens. It varies on a riding-by-riding basis, and until the last election and this one, the only way to figure out what to do was to follow the spin.

But we live in the digital age, and it has empowered citizens to offer up new tools to each other. We now have a comprehensive source of independent information on every riding in both official languages, projectdemocracy.ca, of which I am a co-founder. (It isn’t connected to NOW at all.)

That puts me deep in the trenches of the various polling scenarios that are unfolding, and they are volatile. I can say for sure that in the next few days, it will be very important to stay in touch with how the polls roll. (Projectdemocracy.ca makes that easy and even fun.)

Basically, though, the big, determining uncertainties are confined to relatively few ridings. In most cases, choosing the candidate you like best is perfect. Even among the key ridings, most of the strategic picks are also quite clear and obvious. For the really hard-to-call ridings, we at projectdemocracy.ca are commissioning and seeking out local polls to provide the best intel. Those should start coming in on Friday.

For us in Ontario, the scenario is quite different than in Quebec. There’s not the same orange surge here. The NDP and Liberals are both holding their own (within margins of error), so many downtown Toronto incumbents will likely be re-elected. There is no chance of a Conservative win in the downtown races, so an NDP vote is great anywhere. The likeiest place to add to the orange seat count in Toronto is Parkdale-High Park, where Peggy Nash has a good chance over Gerard Kennedy.

After that, the best hopes for the NDP to score from rising support are in Beaches-East York, where NDPer Matthew Kellway could prevail over Maria Minna, and Davenport, where it’s Andrew Cash against Mario Silva.

But if we Ontario progressives want to help our brethren in Quebec swing the country toward a new progressive government, we will actually vote Liberal in the four GTA ridings the Conservatives have been pushing hard to win.

If you are an NDPer or Green, swap your vote at pairvote.ca and keep the Cons at bay by voting for Liberal Joe Volpe in Eglinton-Lawrence, Rob Oliphant in Don Valley West, Ken Dryden in York Centre, and vote for Liberal Karen Mock in Thornhill to defeat the worst Environment minister the country has ever had (and that’s saying a lot), Peter Kent.

Quebeckers have opened the possibility of sweeping change. To do that, they seem to have gone past old nationalist certainties to embrace a federal party in a completely new way. The least we can do in the rest of Canada is follow their example. Let’s take off our own ideological blinders and embrace cooperation to create the Canada we communally envision.


Patricia Rozema: Make Canada a country you are proud of

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(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Saturday, April 30, 2011
Project Democracy

by Patricia Rozema

Project Democracy provides a way of holding Stephen Harper’s power in check. I worry about what a Harper majority will mean to the country I love. With Project Democracy voters can easily, quickly help make this the country they want to live in by voting strategically. It’s important to remember that it is possible, even in Canada, to shut down open discourse. Arrogant leaders honestly believe that it’s for their country’s own good. We can’t let it happen here.

Stephen Harper clearly wants to control traditional media, social media and twitter. He invokes arcane procedures when he doesn’t like the way parliament is going. He tries to stir up fear about the perfectly legal normal process of coalition governments. He also rarely makes himself available to answer unscripted questions.

Yes, he’s a good calm manager and our country is relatively stable financially. Some of that is, in fact, the Harper minority government’s doing. Some of it was the doing of Liberals before him. But our reasonably good performance economically doesn’t give him the right to overstep the authority he was given the way that he has. He can’t be trusted with our support. I fear issues like abortion, gay marriage, and gun control will all be re-opened. His disregard for environmental concerns would continue unabated.

There’s a reason we haven’t trusted Harper with the reins in the past. His vision doesn’t represent the majority of Canadians.

Project Democracy tells you precisely how your vote is critical. A clear-headed numerical analysis shows you how your vote can help make room for more voices than just that of the Conservatives. I fear that with only 29% of the population’s support, Harper can continue, virtually without accountability, to lead us toward a more militaristic, less caring, less socially progressive, less culturally developed country. Let’s see how many questions he takes if he gets a majority.

I encourage any open minded, democracy-loving Canadian to checkout ProjectDemocracy.ca. This might be a time to consider voting a little differently than you normally do. We get to make our own country. That’s the joy of living in such a young one. Make it a country you are proud of.

Patricia Rozema’s feature film credits include I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, White Room,When Night is Falling, Mansfield Park, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, and Grey Gardens among others. I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing won the coveted Prix de la Jeunesse at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. That same year, it was voted one of Canada’s ten best films ever as polled by 100 international critics. Rozema won an Emmy Award and was nominated for a Grammy for her film Six Gestures, part of the series Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach. Her television credits include The Beckett Film Project’s Happy Days, the pilot and two subsequent episodes of the HBO series Tell Me You Love Me, and most recently, an episode of the critically acclaimed HBO series In Treatment. Rozema received a PEN USA nomination and an Emmy nomination for outstanding writing for her work on the HBO movie Grey Gardens, starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore.

Yann Martel: It’s a Question of Character

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(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Saturday, April 30, 2011
Project Democracy

by Yann Martel


It’s a question of character. Policies, after all, come and go; they can be changed when the circumstances require it. Throughout Canadian history, governments of whatever stripe have ruled—spending or cutting, creating or abolishing—not according to party ideology but to the perceived needs of the nation. So, for example, the Liberals favoured free trade in 1911, but opposed it in 1988. More recently, the Conservative party, which espouses a populist, small-government, hands-off approach to governance, embarked on a massive spending spree after the 2008 crash.

What this shows is that in Canada, essentially, any government will do. Two mechanisms explain this miracle of governance:

First, most prime ministers—at least those who have lasted more than a few months—have grown into their role. They’ve looked beyond the narrow confines of their party platforms and seen what the nation actually needs.

Second, when a prime minister has failed to rise to the occasion, he or she has lost power at the next election.

The relations between the Prime Minister who has a fragile hold on a great deal of power and the millions of citizens who each have a solid hold on a very small parcel of power is an ever shifting equilibrium.

To maintain that equilibrium requires of the Prime Minister astuteness, toughness, vision, integrity and all the other qualities that make for a leader. Citizens, meanwhile, must remain informed, must see beyond their own self-interest, must participate.

The whole game is called democracy, and it’s a crazy, delicate, wonderful game. It’s worked because most of us have played according to the rules. But that’s changing. I’m an anyone-but-Harper-as-PM not only because of policy differences, but because I don’t think he’s playing the same game.

The controlling of everything and everyone, the shutting down of Parliament to avoid a vote, the elimination of the long-form census without any consultation, the appalling treatment of Helena Guergis, the campaign-in-a-bubble, it goes on and on, and the man behind all this creeps me out because I don’t feel in him the spirit of Canadian democracy. He rather feels like an import from the American Tea Party.

And he doesn’t read, my pet peeve. Works of the literary imagination seem to play no role in his vision of life. As far as anyone knows, he hasn’t read a novel, play or poem since his university days. Is that who we want at the pinnacle of our political elite, a stiff, triumphantly post-literate ideologue, a man who doesn’t even seem to like people let alone books?

I say again: it’s a question of character. Please, vote for anyone but Harper. Check out www.projectdemocracy.ca to find out how you can make your vote really count in your riding.

Yann Martel is the author of a collection of short stories and three novels, most notably Life of Pi, which won him the 2002 Man Booker Prize, was a global bestseller and is being adapted to the silver screen by Ang Lee. His most recent novel is Beatrice and Virgil.

Martel also ran a guerilla book club with Stephen Harper, sending the Prime Minister a book every two weeks for four years, a total of one hundred and one novels, plays, poetry collections, graphic novels, children’s books and so on. Each gift was accompanied by a letter explaining the worth of the book. For all his efforts, Martel received not a single reply from the Prime Minister. The first fifty-five letters have been published as a book,What is Stephen Harper Reading?. The complete letters will appear eventually. Yann Martel lives in Saskatoon.


George Elliott Clarke: Vote for candidates that respect the Canadian people

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(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Friday, April 29, 2011
by George Elliott Clarke

The Harper Conservatives are not Canadian Conservatives. They are U.S. Republicans in Tim Horton’s photo-ops.

If you opposed what George Bush did to America (i.e., ruined it), you cannot support the Harper Republican program for Canada. Tax cuts for the rich, prisons for the poor, and war for foreign policy, is no practical program for a great, good, and decent country on the face of this earth.

The proof of just how bad Harper is, is his war against Parliamentary supremacy; his acts of outright contempt for OUR Parliament – and, thus, by extension, for us. When President Nixon tried such maneouvres and shenanigans in the U.S., he was forced to resign from office. And Bush’s Republicans were trounced in 2008.

The genius of Parliamentary Democracy is that the greatest good is served the greatest number of people by always making it possible for the opposition parties and the Crown representatives (the Governor-General and the Lieutenant-Governors) to act as checks and balances to governmental authority. Harper has tried to erode and dismantle these restraints.

For that reason alone, he deserves defeat and dismissal. Vote for candidates who respect us, the Canadian people.

— George Elliott Clarke

George Elliott Clarke, a seventh generation African-Canadian, was born near the Black Loyalist community of Three Mile Plains, Nova Scotia, in 1960. A graduate of the University of Waterloo, Dalhousie University, and Queen’s University, he is now the inaugural E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. A prolific poet, playwright (Whylah Falls, Beatrice Chancey, Trudeau: Long March, Shining Path), novelist (George and Rue), anthologist, critic, and screenwriter, his many honours include the Portia White Prize for Artistic Achievement (1988), the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry (2001), the National Magazine Gold Medal for Poetry (2001), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award (2004), and the prestigious Trudeau Fellow Prize (2005). He has been inducted as a member of the Order of Nova Scotia and is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He lives in Toronto, Ontario and owns land in Nova Scotia.


Canada leading constitutional expert Peter Russell

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(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Esteemed constitutional scholar author and University of Toronto professor emeritus Peter Russell has added his name to its list of supporters for the Democracy Project with this important statement.

“This is the most important federal election in my life time. What is at stake is nothing less than parliamentary democracy. If the electorate rewards Mr. Harper with a majority it will mean that he will be able to operate as a presidential prime minister without the check and balance of congress. It will also mean that two out of five Canadians think very little of the need to hold government accountable to parliament. Mr. Harper has reduced parliamentary debate to “bickering” and the role of parliament in the formation of government to irrelevant constitutional stuff. I hope and pray that the parties of parliamentarians win a majority next Monday.”

To hear Peter Russell speak about his grave apprehensions of what a Harper Conservative Government could mean for the future of Canadian parliamentary democracy see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEsXSb_JJSU

Peter H. Russell is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto where he taught from 1958-1997. Considered one of Canada’s most respect political scientists, Russell was Director of Research for the McDonald Commission on the RCMP, a member of the Federal Task Force on Comprehensive Land Claims, and President of the Canadian Political Science Association. He chaired the Research Advisory Committee for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. His recent publications include articles on constitutional politics, judicial independence, and Aboriginal peoples. He is the author of Two Cheers for Minority Government: The Evolution of Canadian Parliamentary Democracy.


My paper napkin guide to the election — Margaret Atwood

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(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Folks, this article is by Margaret Atwood, the famous Canadian author. Enjoy.

Margaret Atwood


Being a writer, I write frequently. It’s a nervous habit. The other day I was writing on a paper napkin, having rashly left the house without a notebook. What I was trying to figure out was the kind of country I would like to live in, and thus the kind of party I’d vote for if it were likely to encourage such qualities.

Like many swing voters, I want to vote for values, not for labels. I don’t much care what parties call themselves or what they say they will do. I care about what they really have done, and the values they’ve demonstrated by their actions.

What I was looking for were qualities we swing voters might be able to agree on, no matter what “party” we may have voted for historically. Suppose we had a party called the Common Grounds Party, or maybe the Common Decency Party. It might begin with the list on the paper napkin. Here it is. As you can see, there are pairs of opposites.

And, since you probably can’t read my writing, this is what it says:

Where do you want to live?

Open/closed; leader/dictator; inclusive/excluding; generous/mean; listens/does not listen; takes responsibility about mistakes/it’s always someone else’s fault; humanly imperfect/always right, like God; humility/arrogance; works well with others/one-man band.

There was a second page, which included things like “Fair/unfair (laws and enforcement),” “Allows initiative/control freak,” “Governs for the welfare of all citizens/non-party members are enemies.” But then I ran out of space.

Maybe my paper napkin is more like a description of what you might wish in a prospective roommate or a best friend. Fair enough: I’d agree that a government, as opposed to an individual person, does need additional desirable characteristics. So here are some of the things I might add to the paper napkin.

The ability to count, plus fiscal transparency. Parliament fell on a motion of non-confidence triggered by the Harper government’s failure to disclose the real costs of budget items such as fighter planes and mega-jails. But voters need to be told what things will cost, since they pay for them. It appears that the planes may cost ten times what we were originally told. Why would taxpayers endorse a blank cheque for an astronomical ongoing expense with no ceiling?

Either the government knew the cost and refused to tell us — thus no transparency — or it did not know, and thus cannot count.

On women: plain speaking, no double-talk. This government is deeply traumatized by women’s reproductive organs. At the G20, Harper claimed to be concerned about “maternal and child health,” noting that “500,000 women die each year in pregnancy and 9 million children die before the age of five.” But his government is defunding Planned Parenthood, an international organization that works with the poorest and most marginalized women and children to improve their survival chances. (Yes, I know, Bev Oda says she just hasn’t got around to the Planned Parenthood application for the past 18 months; but as Miss Manners says, no answer is an answer.)

In addition, the Harper government’s Senate appointees effectively squashed Bill C-393 that would have facilitated cheap AIDS drugs to 2 million children in poor countries; which calls to mind the A.H. Clough poem, “The Last Decalogue:” Thou shalt not kill; but need’st not strive/ Officiously to keep alive.”

Harper says he will not allow a debate on abortion. But he should allow it. All aspects of this troublesome question — and it has been troublesome throughout history, as there are no lovely answers — should be thoroughly discussed. There should be clarity on Harper’s attitude to women and children and their well-being. Let them die of malnutrition? Supply adequate diet, public support if there’s no income, protection from rape and enforced prostitution, improved adoption procedures, education, better hospitals and access to drugs, new orphanages, enforced chastity, unwillingly pregnant women locked up in mega-jails, payment per baby if baby-making is service provided to the state, pace Napoleon?

What’s it to be? Spit it out. Let us know what may be coming soon to a neighbourhood near us.

Respect for parliamentary democracy. The Common Grounds and/or Decency Party would, I think, still assume that democracy — for which people in other parts of the world are risking their lives — is a good thing. But it could be that not every other party shares this view. Is Parliament just a fly making a bothersome buzzing noise in the ear of the El Supremo who dictates in secret from within the closed castle of the PMO’s office? (This trend did not begin with the Harper government — it goes back at least to Trudeau — but it has been taken to an extreme under it.)

And if we don’t need Parliament, why not prorogue it indefinitely? Then we wouldn’t have to be troubled by these pesky elections, which Harper assumes Canadian citizens fear as a fate worse than death.

The Common Grounds/Decency Party would think we should have the right to vote in free elections — as often as it takes to get a government that has the confidence of the House.

So there’s my checklist. You probably have items of your own. To qualify for the Paper Napkin, however, they should be things you think we swing voters might mostly agree on. Check the parties off against the common list.

Then vote, and — as they say — cherish the moment. People elsewhere are dying for it.

Margaret Atwood is the author of more than 35 volumes of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent novel is The Year of the Flood.



“Catch 22” ups its campaign to stop Harper in crucial ridings

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(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Similar to the Democracy Project, Catch 22 is another Anyone-But-Harper movement actively campaigning to defect Harper’s Conservative. The following information is published on their site. For further detail, please visit them at http://catch22campaign.ca/


The Catch 22 Campaign is stepping up its efforts in 15 electoral ridings where defeats for Conservative candidates will help prevent a Conservative majority government.

“While we will keep working hard in the 57 ridings we have identified, we are putting extra efforts into 15 crucial ridings where strong strategic campaigns could result in some serious losses for the Conservatives,” said Gary Shaul, Catch 22 coordinator.

Catch 22 recommends that Canadians residing in their target ridings vote for the opposition candidate with the best chance of winning the seat, even if that candidate is not their first choice.

“The NDP surge has moved the party into second place in the polls,” said Nick Fillmore, a Catch 22 organizer, “but this hasn’t changed the importance of voting strategically in certain ridings to stop a Harper majority.”

“If people don’t vote strategically,” said Fillmore, “the danger is that the New Democrat, Liberal and Green votes will split and the Tories will walk through the middle and win enough seats to go over the top.” Some recent polls show Harper within reach of a majority.

Due to Canada’s outdated electoral system, Harper could win a majority of seats in Parliament with as little as 37 per cent of the popular vote. This is unusual internationally speaking, as most other countries have adopted a Proportional Representation voting system that prevents a party from forming a majority government with such small support.

As part of its stepped-up campaign, Catch 22 is launching a telephone campaign which is expected to reach thousands of voters. It is also advertising in newspapers, and encouraging volunteers in all target ridings to help distribute flyers.

Harper has already begun the transformation of Canada during his five years of minority rule. “He is pleading for a majority government in order to cement his power and implement a right-wing agenda that most Canadians do not support, said Shaul. “We are trying to do everything we can to stop him from institutionalizing the wish list of the National Citizen’s Coalition, Reform Party and the oil industry.”

Catch 22’s high priority ridings and voting recommendation

[BC] Saanich—Gulf Islands: Elizabeth May (Green)
[BC] Burnaby—Douglas: Kennedy Stewart (NDP)
[BC] Surrey North: Jasbir Sandhu (NDP)
[BC] Vancouver South: Ujjal Dosanjh (Lib)
[AB] Edmonton—Strathcona: Linda Duncan (NDP)
[SK] Saskatoon—Rosetown— Biggar: Nettie Wiebe (NDP)
[ON] Guelph: Frank Valeriote (Lib)
[ON] Kitchener—Waterloo: Andrew Telegdi (Lib)
[ON] Kitchener Centre: Karen Redman (Lib)
[ON] Welland: Malcolm Allen (NDP)
[ON] Mississauga—Erindale: Omar Alghabra (Lib)
[ON] Ottawa—Orléans: David Bertschi (Lib)
[ON] Oak Ridges-Markhan: Lui Temelkovski (Lib)
[NB] Saint John: Stephen Chase (Lib)
[NS] West Nova: Robert Thibault (Lib)

Catch 22’s GTA recommendations

Conservative-held ridings








Riding Endorsing Incumbent
Mississauga—Erindale Omar Alghabra (Lib) Bob Dechert
Oak Ridges—Markham Lui Temelkovski (Lib) Paul Calandra
Oakville Max Khan (Lib) Terence Young
Oshawa Chris Buckley (NDP) Collin Carrie
Thornhill Karen Mock (Lib) Peter Kent
Vaughan Mario Ferri (Lib) Julian Fantino



Opposition-held ridings

Riding Endorsing Incumbent
Ajax—Pickering Mark Holland (Lib) Mark Holland (Lib)
Brampton—Springdale Ruby Dhalla (Lib) Ruby Dhalla (Lib)
Brampton West Andrew Kania (Lib) Andrew Kania (Lib)
Don Valley West Rob Oliphant (Lib) Rob Oliphant (Lib)
Eglinton—Lawrence Joseph Volpe (Lib) Joseph Volpe (Lib)
Mississauga South Paul Szabo (Lib) Paul Szabo (Lib)
Welland Malcolm Allen (NDP) Malcolm Allen (NDP)
York Centre Ken Dryden (Lib) Ken Dryden (Lib)

Please also check out Swing 33, another ABH group (http://swing33.ca/).

The Whole Nine Yards

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(Thrugh Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Thank you, folks, for bearing with me, this biased and un-official Election observer/agitator.

For the record, I have already voted in a special Advance Poll, in my riding, a few days after the Election was announced. That’s because I have to visit the West Coast (actually staying in Elizabeth May’s territory) for a while, and won’t return to Ontario in time to vote on May 2. (Believe it or not, we were not the first ones to cast the ballot; there was already another couple before us.)

This has been an interesting 4 weeks. The last minute NDP surge is a strong indication of the disillusion and revulsion of ordinary Canadians, with the Harper government. People have to choose now in this last week of campaign. They rose up from their couch and assess the situation, have a hard and serious look at the candidates/parties (i.e. actually we are talking about the leaders here, as broadcasted by the media, daily).

Harper is out, so who are we going to vote for?

Ignatieff is damaged goods; his image is long tarnished by the Conservative attack ads. Iggy has only himself to blame. He did not mount any counter-attack and try to correct the harm done, and to reveal his true passionate self. Now it is a bit too late. With all the town hall meetings every night for the past 4 weeks, he cannot reverse his image as ordinary Canadians see him, as projected on the TV screens, constantly for the past 2 years. Sometime you have to fight back when confronted by a bully; a nice and quiet gentleman usually lose out (time and again, especially in politics). Look at John Turner, Joe Clark, just to name a few. Nowadays, people like nasty personality. Look at Charlie Sheen and his nauseating performances. (Today, the so-called Whiz Kid, a main player in the Conservative campaign, was caught red-handed passing fake photo of Ignatieff to the media, was forced to resign. Another dirty smear campaign of Tory’s tricks exposed. Is this enough to save Ignatieff?)

Layton is the alternative. His performance is quite impressive, especially during the debates. Without doubt, people are having a second look and are leaning towards the NDP. What other choice do we have, anyway?

I have known Jack Layton a long time ago. First met him years ago, when we were launching a Chinese magazine in Toronto, he and Olivia Chow, his then girlfriend (now his wife), attended our banquet. He even brought his two young kids, because he couldn’t find babysit. They are very down to earth and approachable, great leader material. His ambition then was the Mayor of Toronto, now a shot for the Prime Minister. He sure comes a long way.

My only concern is his team. In the election, we are not just voting for the leader, but the team members. As reported in the G&M and the Star, one of his Quebec candidates was from Ottawa and she is taking a vacation in Vegas during mid-campaign. A Star reporter was trying to locate another NDP candidate in Ontario with no luck. She doesn’t even have an address or a campaign headquarter. Are we going to vote for these newbie and expect them to represent us in Parliament? No wonder Harper is sitting tight and smiling.

Still remember Bob Rae? His unexpected win of the race from Peterson’s Liberal. As soon as he became Premier, in the middle of a recession, he poured tons of money into the Ontario economy (actually, Harper did just that too, except Rae did not inherit billions of dollars of surplus from previous government). That didn’t work out. He changed direction, and cut, cut, cut. Even his supporters, the unions were against him. Those were the years of reign of chaos in Ontario, by an inexperience government.

We are in a dilemma.

If voters are fed up and stay home, just like in 2008, we are running the chance of handing out a majority to Harper. Voter Suppression, this is what he was hoping for in the beginning of campaign, telling us this is an un-necessary election. Why vote? If you stay home, he wins.

On the other hand, he is also smiling, with this in-fighting. Liberal, NDP and the Bloc grabbing vote from each other, and the Conservative will squeak through the middle. Again a majority.

That is why Harper is fighting so hard against a Coalition, the banding together of the opposition parties, and made it sounds like some evil act. That is the tactic of divide and conquer. That is why he is so afraid of Strategic Voting (http://www.projectdemocracy.ca/ , http://catch22campaign.ca/ ), the only way to prevent a Harper majority, or even a minority and the only way to vote him out of office.

Vote Swapping (Vote Pairing) is also a movement growing fast during this federal election. It is a variation of Strategic Voting. Go to their sites to find out more.

http://www.votepair.ca/

http://voteswap.ca/Main_Page