Editing Strategic voting (section)

=== Canada ===
The observed effect of [[Duverger's law]] in Canada is weaker than in other countries.<ref name="Duverger2">Duverger's Law of Plurality Voting The Logic of Party Competition in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, 2009, André Blais, Bernard Grofman, Shaun Bowler</ref> In the [[1999 Ontario general election|1999 Ontario provincial election]], strategic voting was encouraged by opponents of the [[Ontario Progressive Conservative Party|Progressive Conservative]] government of [[Mike Harris]]. This failed to unseat Harris but succeeded in suppressing the [[Ontario New Democratic Party]] vote to a historic low.

In the [[2004 Canadian federal election|2004 federal election]], and to a lesser extent in the [[2006 Canadian federal election|2006 election]], strategic voting was a concern for the federal [[New Democratic Party]] (NDP). In the 2004 election, the governing Liberal Party was able to convince many New Democratic voters to vote Liberal to avoid a Conservative government.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} In the 2006 elections, the Liberal Party attempted the same strategy, with Prime Minister [[Paul Martin]] asking New Democrats and Greens to vote for the Liberal Party to prevent a Conservative win. The New Democratic Party leader [[Jack Layton]] responded by asking voters to "lend" their votes to his party, suggesting that the Liberal Party was bound to lose the election regardless of strategic voting.{{Cn|date=May 2024}} This failed to prevent the Conservatives from winning the election, although they did not win a majority of seats.{{Cn|date=May 2024}}

During the [[2015 Canadian federal election|2015 federal election]], strategic voting was used extensively against the [[Conservative Party of Canada|Conservative]] government of [[Stephen Harper]], which had benefited from [[vote splitting]] among centrist and left-leaning parties in the [[2011 Canadian federal election|2011 election]].<ref>{{cite web |date=18 October 2015 |title=Strategic Voting Must Include Casting Your Ballot for the Green Party |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ken-wu/strategetic-voting-green_b_8305938.html |newspaper=The Huffington Post}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |url=http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-october-15-2015-1.3271954/federal-election-2015-strategic-voters-challenge-democracy-1.3271971 |title=Federal Election 2015: Strategic voters challenge democracy |date=15 October 2015 |medium=Radio broadcast |publisher=[[CBC Radio]] |first1=Anna Maria |last1=Tremonti}}</ref> Following the landslide victory of the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberals]] led by [[Justin Trudeau]] over Harper's Conservatives, experts argued that this dramatic increase in support for the Liberals at the expense of the NDP and [[Green Party of Canada|Green Party]] was partially due to strategic voting for Liberal candidates.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Press |first1=Jordan |date=20 October 2015 |title=Canada Election Result Numbers Show Canadians Voted Strategically: Experts |newspaper=Huffington Post |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/10/20/canada-election-results-strategic-voting_n_8343104.html}}</ref> In three weeks, 1.4 million voters switched from NDP to Liberal. In at least two closely-contested ridings, strategic voting websites obtained enough pledges to account for the victory margin of the Liberal candidate.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Ali |last1=Kashani |title=Proof That Trudeau Won Because Strategic Voting Works |date=22 October 2015 |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ali-kashani/strategic-voting-justin-trudeau_b_8351796.html}}</ref>