Whether I have agreed or not, I have always found Keith Halliday’s column interesting. However, his views as expressed on October 2 seemed to me to be superficially based on polling numbers and his avowed friendship with the Liberal candidate.
Having spent the majority of the column demonstrating the failings of polls, he blithely uses one poll to advocate “strategic voting” in support of his friend.
Firstly, anyone who pays the least attention to polls, especially ones done a month before an election, knows that they are not necessarily a predictor of results. This poll was based on calling those with land lines only, and we do not know whether in the Yukon the communities were included in the poll cited by Halliday.
It will come as no surprise that I am supporting his friend’s opponent, Melissa Atkinson, running for the NDP. I certainly have no crystal ball to know how, on election day, people will vote. Some will decide as they walk into the polling booth, others have already voted ahead of October 19.
In my view, the “strategic” vote should be a vote for the person who will work to bring real change to the Yukon, someone who has worked as a respected professional for 15 years in the Yukon and knows first hand the challenges of many Yukoners. As well: someone who knows how to bring together our community, who understands the major issues of income inequality and the imperative to implement the long overdue reconciliation with First Nations.
My strategic vote is for the candidate who is rooted in the communities and who understands the true value of our environment and a strong economy and sees that with a co-operative and regulated approach, Yukoners can create jobs and preserve our heritage. It is not either/or, it is how.
In my poll, it is the time for Yukoners to vote for real change and the candidate who embodies a new era.
In the end, however, of course, Yukoners are quite capable of deciding for themselves. I simply suggest that basing one’s vote on a month-old robo poll is hardly strategic or scientific.
Audrey McLaughlin
Whitehorse