I don't see as I have much of a choice.

The Conservatives released their election platform today, 1 week before the election. That's dirty pool by itself.

What shocked me is that they snuck re-introducing Bill C-61 into their goals. This bill gives the Canadian government ludicrous power to invade personal privacy to protect the interests of an outdated and obsolete industry, namely the traditional music and movie distribution industry. Huge fines against people who aren't even stealing, and NO provisions for fair-use, educational use, parody, journalism, etc. What the industry decides to lock, you're not allowed to unlock, no matter how justified you are in doing it. In a very real sense, you're not even allowed to talk about how you might be able to unlock it, or do legitimate research on the topic.

Since I'm in one of the few ridings in Alberta where there's actually a possibility of electing a Liberal, and a few votes could actually make a difference, and electing a Liberal means just a slightly worse chance for the Conservatives to get the majority they'd need to push this through, I'm very likely going to be voting for the Liberals. Not because I like them, not because I agree with them, not because I want them to have any power. Simply because I'd rather have an ineffective government than an overtly hostile one.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. Democracy simply doesn't work."

In the hopes that a vote that would normally go to someone other than the Liberals may have a shot somewhere else, I'm signing up with http://apps.new.facebook.com/ah_vote_swap/ . It's a facebook app to allow you to trade votes with someone in another riding. The upshot is, you and someone else together get to give the same number of votes to the parties you like, and still get to vote strategically against a party you'd rather see lose in either riding. This one in particular is biased towards voting out the Conservatives, but that's fine by me, since as of about half an hour ago, I'm highly biased against them too.