The End of Conservative Canada? Help Make it Happen

So far today a group of 80 Economists, and the National Post both attacked Harper's platform. Even Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach apparently doesn't think Harper's economic plan does enough.

"Alberta's Progressive Conservative premier wants to meet with his provincial counterparts to discuss the state of the Canadian economy, even though Stephen Harper called the same proposal by Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion "panicking."

Stelmach, although he still wants a Harper Majority, also openly criticized Harper's Nuclear Policy.

""Albertans will decide, not the federal government, if we have nuclear power in this province," the premier told reporters Tuesday. "No other jurisdiction other than Alberta.""

It would appear that everyone now knows which way the wind is blowing.

According to the latest Nanos Poll the numbers look like this:
Conservatives 34% Liberals 31% NDP 18% Bloc 11% Greens 6%

When split by region the Nanos poll says that Liberals continue to lead the Conservatives in Atlantic Canada, are ahead of the Conservatives 22 - 20 in Quebec (Bloc at 46%) and are now solidly ahead in Ontario 40-31% with the NDP at 22.

Harris-Decima largely agrees with the conclusions of Nanos although the numbers vary slightly Cons at 31% the Liberals at 27% and the NDP at 20%. Harris-Decima also agrees that the Liberals lead the Conservatives in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. They also point out that the Liberals have pulled ahead of Conservatives among urban voters (representing 80% of Canada) and amoung urban women the Liberals enjoy a 9 point lead.

Although the hope, at the start of the election, was to prevent Harper from gaining a majority - if things continue the way they are currently going a Liberal minority is not out of the question, especially if people vote smart. Although there were cries today
against strategic voting, especially from the Greens, if it is done the right way strategic voting would actually help everyone.

According to Voteforenvironment.ca the seat projection at the beginning of the election looked like this: Conservative 141, Liberal 73, NDP 35, Green 0, Bloc 57, IND 2. However if we vote strategically things could look more like this: Concervatives 97 (-44 seats), Liberals 109 (+36 seats), NDP 46 (+11 seats), Greens 1 (+1), Bloc 53 (-4 sorry Bloc, it's the whole separatism thing), IND 2 (no change). So while the Greens and NDP could lose a little campaign cash they gain seats. If you feel bad about not voting for them donate $10-20 - they only get $1.82 per vote/per year in Federal funds so they would actually come out better financially (and the whole gaining seats thing).

Both Voteforenvironment.ca and Anyonebutharper.ca have easy tools to help you figure out who has the best chance of beating your local Conservative and Anyonebutharper.ca's widget is mobile, so you can take it and put it on your web site, blog, Myspace etc.

Strategic Voting Made Simple