NDP’s Cassidy says strategic voting led to Liberal win

Terry Cassidy (left), the New Democratic Party candidate for Bay of Quinte riding in the federal election, discusses the outcome with supporters at his election-night party at the Wild Card Brewery in Trenton. Photo by Stephanie Clue, QNet News

By Emilie Quesnel

BELLEVILLE – The NDP candidate in Bay of Quinte riding says he is disappointed with the outcome of Monday’s election and suggests that strategic voting is partly to blame.

“I’m not really happy with the results … People got sucked into reading and believing the polls, therefore decided they should strategically vote to prevent (Conservative leader Stephen) Harper from getting (re-)elected,” Terry Cassidy said Monday night as he met with supporters at a Trenton pub. Cassidy placed a distant third in the riding, which was won by Liberal Neil Ellis.

“Shame if that’s the way they voted … You should choose the best person and judge which is the best party in terms of the platforms and policies,” he said.

The news media gave the Liberals a lot of positive coverage over the last couple of weeks, Cassidy said. He added that he thinks many people voted Liberal because that’s how they believed they could prevent another term under Harper.

Cassidy said he believes people should simply vote for the candidate they want to win, even if the media suggest that strategic voting is the way to go.

“Sometimes the right thing to do is the hard thing.”

Cassidy isn’t the only one suggesting that strategic voting played powerful a role in Monday’s election.

Jake Goselin, 18, a Loyalist College radio broadcasting student, said he believes many of the votes for the Liberals were a deliberate attempt to take out Harper.

“A lot of people felt that Harper was either prime minister for too long or they just didn’t like the way he was running our country,” Goselin said.