How did strategic voting play out on election day?

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The goal to topple the Conservatives by uniting the left behind one party did work, but perhaps not on a riding by riding level, says UBC political scientist Stewart Prest.

“It’s a bit of a mixed bag,” says Prest. “In some ways, Canadians took matters into their own hands and coordinated at a national level in a lot of ways around the Liberal party. We had this red wave sweep across the country. The more targeted riding-by riding-approach, it seems like that’s still a work in progress and I’m not sure we’re not totally there yet given the complexities of predicting what happens at the riding level.

“I think there were definitely some successes, and certainly the broader message of strategic voting came through loud and clear. There’s no doubt about that.”

The most glaring failure on the night was in Vancouver-Granville, where strategic voting group Leadnow endorsed NDP candidate Mira Oreck amidst some controversy, and then saw her crash to second place to Liberal Jody Wilson Raybould.

“It remains to be seen just how much they have learned,” says Prest. “But one would hope that certain humility would come with these sorts of exercises, given the complexity of picking winners ahead of time and far ahead of time.”

He suggests either a more flexible approach next time out or even not endorsing a candidate when the numbers don’t back up the case.

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