Murray Dobbin recently posed the question "Reform democracy or rid the country of Stephen Harper?" in response to the Canadian reaction to the prorogation of Parliament.
It is in this spririt that the Catch 22 Harper Conservatives campaign was launched. The Harper government has got to go. For the most part, the opposition parties have been ineffective in holding this government to account. Clearly it is up to us, the voters, to find creative ways to ensure our votes lead to the defeat of the Harper government.
The Catch 22 Harper Conservatives strategy is to target winnable ridings with weak Conservative incumbents, recruit volunteers and communicate with voters before the next election is called. The main premise is that an informed electorate will vote in their own interests, and not strictly in the interests of political parties, politicians and lobby groups. The strategy will benefit some opposition candidates from the NDP, Liberals and possibly the Bloc while remaining independent of them.
In order to have an impact on the next election, we don't need to influence every voter in every riding. Each party has a loyal base which cannot be moved. But by targeting specific ridings, polls and voters and getting our message out early, we greatly increase the likelihood of success.
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NEXT: How federal elections work in Canada (detailed rationale behind Catch 22)
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Gary Shaul is the Catch 22 campaign co-ordinator
It sounds as though Catch-22 has a similar goal to that of the Alberta Democratic Renewal Project -- only the ADRP is an Alberta grassroots organization that, in the next provincial election, will encourage progressive voters to temporarily set aside their personal wishes to to vote for their party of choice and instead to vote strategically for the strongest of the 3 or 4 to help defeat the right wing parties.
Currently, Alberta has a fractured centre/left that includes the NDP, Liberals, the Alberta Party, and now possibly the old Greens. In the event that these 3 or 4 parties choose not to engage in a pre-election coalition and decide for themselves, the ADRP will ask voters to cast their ballots for the ADRP-supported candidates most likely to defeat the right-wing candidates in selected ridings. The idea, of course, is that in certain ridings, cooperation is the only way progressive parties have a half-chance of winning.