Three days before the election, the final call for strategy

The Liberal leader, Justin trudeau, urges “progressive” voters to vote strategically for his party, but pleads against the idea of ​​a similar tactic on the Conservative side, which could rally the vote of voters in the People’s Party of Canada.

“Mr. O’Toole is telling anti-tax people, people who deny the existence of climate change, people who are against a woman’s right to choose, that there is room for them in his party, ”said the Liberal leader Friday in Windsor, southern Ontario, where he was greeted by insults from protesters.

As for him, however, he did not hesitate to invite motivated voters to block the way for the Conservatives to vote for him. To progressives who are considering supporting the New Democratic Party (NPD), le Bloc Quebecois or the Green Party, Justin Trudeau asked “to take five minutes” and evaluate his platform. He added that the Bloc Québécois was not in a position to prevent a Conservative government from acting like former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

With less than three days to go, the Liberal leader was not the only one to recommend a dose of tactics in the voting booth to ward off his main opponent. Erin O’Toole called on voters to punish Justin Trudeau for starting a “$ 600 million” election campaign in the midst of a pandemic, by voting for him. In the same breath, he denied any attempt to woo voters skeptical about vaccination.

“Three small parties”

Erin O’Toole didn’t mention the name of Maxime Bernier nor even acknowledged the existence of his party, on Friday, the day the newspaper to the Conservative editorial line Toronto Sun called on People’s Party of Canada (PPC) voters to strategically vote for him. According to Mr. O’Toole, “there are five federal parties”. The account appears to exclude the PPC, which came sixth in the last general election. “There are three small parties in this race,” he later repeated, without listing them.

In an email to To have to, PPC spokesman Martin Masse clarified that this vision was based on “the false premise of ‘dividing the vote’ and [visait] to discourage conservative supporters who are drawn to our program. The Conservative Party is no longer Conservative. “

According to Laval University political science professor Marc André Bodet, a significant number of citizens take some form of electoral tactic into consideration when voting, i.e. around 30% of the electorate. About a third of them, or 10% of voters, actually choose to support a candidate who is not their favorite.

The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-Francois Blanchet, argued on Friday that the relevance of his party is to prevent one or the other of the governing parties from succeeding in obtaining a majority. “The vocation, the virtue and the strength of the Bloc are to prevent anyone who will form a government from doing anything at the expense of Quebec. […] The best guarantee we can give, no offense to Mr. Trudeau, is to give the Bloc Québécois the balance of power. “

The leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh, repeated that “Mr. Trudeau and Mr. O’Toole are not on your side”. The only poll that matters, he says, is Monday’s election.

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