Dear Typical Stressed but Concerned Canadian Voter

I just came back from my eye doctor. She's a great gal, loves her work, loves her patients, and her patients love her.

We talked politics.

I think she's pretty typical of a lot of very busy but concerned Canadians

She hates Harper, wants him out, but hates Iggy too. She always votes Liberal, but doesn't even know this time who her candidate is. She said she's seen no signs.

She said that a Conservative majority was inevitable.

After I got done shrieking 'NOOOOO', I talked strategic voting with her, told her it was vital that we stop dividing the anti-Con vote. I did the whole 'hold one's nose' spiel.

She wanted to continue to talk about the Liberals: why did they bring Iggy in, why don't they get rid of him, etc.

I said: First, we get rid of Evul Stevul.

I asked for her email address and told her I'd send her what she needs to vote strategically.

I just did it and here it is with links left in plain text, so it can be conveniently copied, edited, pasted and forwarded to EVERY LIKELY PERSON YOU KNOW.

Dear World's Best Eye Doc:
First we need to deny Harper the majority he so desperately wants. Then we can go back to politics as usual -- the Libs to backroom in-fighting, the NDP to uselessness, and the Greens to hopelessness.

To get rid of Harper's Conservatives, we must vote strategically. We must stop dividing the anti-Conservative vote. We must hold our noses and vote for the candidate and party most likely to beat the Con. In some cases, this will mean voting NDP, in others Lib, or even Bloc or Green.

Do not try to vote strategically, i.e. just anybody but Con, unless you've done some homework. It's easy though. There are several websites where smart political wonks have done the math. Here's one: http://www.projectdemocracy.ca/

Find your riding, see which candidate has been recommended and vote for him or her.

Here's a site offering donation information for 33 'swing' ridings, if you want to help out with some dough. http://swing33.ca/

Here's another strategic voting guide: http://regressiveconservative.ca/voting-guide.php

And another targetting 40 key ridings. http://catch22campaign.ca/notes

All of these sites are multi- or non-partisan.

Do please vote and pass this information along to any and all your friends, relatives, and acquaintances across the country.

This is really urgent. Look at the nuttiness going on the US. You think Harper wouldn't try killing universal health care, pensions, unions, and environmental legislation if he got a majority?  

If you or any of your pals need a reason to vote against Harper, here's 107 of them. http://100reasons.ca/

And for fun -- and not safe for work -- have a look at this site that has gone viral. It crashed yesterday when it was hit over a million times on the day it went live. http://shitharperdid.ca.nyud.net/

Each page has a headline, some text, a link to the source and a button to hit for the next 'item'. 

Sample: Stephen Harper thinks women talk too much.

Since 2006, Harper has cut funding for women’s advocacy by 43 per cent, shut 12 out of 16 Status of Women offices in Canada and eliminated funding of legal voices for women and minority groups, including the National Association of Women and the Law and the Courts Challenges Program.

There are also two funny -- and NOT SAFE FOR WORK -- videos promoting that site. Young people in particular might find them cool. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONPki_Qhlz0&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQm0t1v2wOM&feature=related

Just one more thing: Rick Mercer, in one of his rants, challenged young people to vote. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=225Mx6ya7SQ

And the kids responded: http://leadnow.ca/en/vote-mobs

They've staged several Vote Mobs and they're planning more. 

Here's the first from UGuelph: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbGGjnoqfFs

UVic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbGGjnoqfFs

Please forward this far and wide. Be part of the viral 'Anti-Harper social media attack' 
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/techsense/archive/2011/04/13/anti-harper-social-media-attack-goes-viral.aspx

This may be the most important election you've ever voted in.

Cheers,
fern hill

Seriously, fans of democracy, the fucking media keeps shovelling 'inevitable Conservative majority' at people too busy to inform themselves otherwise and they'll believe it and stay home.

This is what Evul Stevul is counting on.

Here's that last link in the letter, for some Thursday midday optimism. Anti-Harper Social Media Attack Goes Viral.

Social media is wreaking havoc on the Conservative Party’s closely orchestrated election output with anti-Harper videos going viral and a website citing a litany of Harper criticisms crashing Wednesday under viewer traffic.

Mixing mockery with profanity, the web site shitharperdid.ca got more than a million hits within hours of its its launch Wednesday morning.

Among people who noticed the site – Margaret Atwood – who tweeted a link to her 160,000-plus followers:

“Didn't know about some of these things! Yikes!” she wrote.