Voting intelligently

Two days away from the B.C. Election, decisions have to be made.

Or, one decision at least. On Oct. 19, eligible voters who make it to the voting stations across the province and in the Kootenay Central riding, will put much weight and thought behind one move: voting.

Or they could disregard the heavy lifting and instead of analyzing the party and independent candidate platforms — determining the most suitable person to represent the riding — they could vote strategically: voting for the lesser evil to keep the greater one out of office.

During the recent all candidates forum in Nelson on Tuesday night, NDP candidate and incumbent MLA Brittny Anderson talked about being in government, having direct contact with cabinet ministers and the premier and how she has been able to personally carry forward issues from this riding, said local conservation ecologist and informed voter, Greg Utzig.

In response, independent candidate Corinne Mori replied that the statement was what was wrong with the political system.

“And I 100 per cent agree with that, and that isn’t the way it should be, but it is the reality,” Utzig said Tuesday night after the forum at the Prestige Lakeside Resort concluded.

“We have to live with the reality, and it is nice to talk about what is nice … what we would ideally have is proportional representation, and there would be a dozen parties in the legislature and they would be forced to create coalitions to create a governing coalition and a variety of views would be represented.”

But that isn’t the system in Canada. The federal government had the opportunity to bring in proportional representation, and then refused. The problem with electoral reform, said Utzig, is the people who are in the position of power to change it, were successful under the current system so why would they change it.

Informed voters, strategic voting comes into play at the end of the day, he said, with people asking the question, “Who has the best chance of providing representation for the ideas I would like to see happen in this riding?

“To me, I guess you could call that strategic voting, but I would call it intelligent voting,” Utzig said. “If you want your views and your objectives represented choose the candidate that would be most likely to carry that forward.

“It’s a problem because there are a multitude of issues, and every (voter) has a key issue for them. So you choose the party that maybe represents your key issue, but the fact is they may have other issues that you disagree with, so where do you go?”

So, Kootenay Central voters have to decide, within the four candidates in the riding, which one deserves an “X” beside their name on Oct. 19.

Voting stations in Nelson:

• Prestige Lakeside Resort, 701 Lakeside Dr.

• Hume Elementary School, 310 Nelson Ave.

Candidates

• Brittny Anderson, NDP

• Corinne Mori, independent

• Nicole Charlwood, B.C. Green Party

• Kelly Vandenberghe, B.C. Conservative Party