This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Call to action!

Election day is drawing near and over 1000 Green supporters are currently not able to be paired. In the last round of matches we were able to match only a handful of such supporters across the nation with voters in Saanich-Gulf Islands.

On April 27, Elizabeth May on CBC Radio’s As It Happens, claimed to be in a dead heat with Gary Lunn. According to May EVERY vote is vital to ensure that a million or more voters are represented by at least ONE MP in the House of Commons. Canadians vote not in one national but 308 separate MP elections. To achieve the goals of May, the Green Party of Canada, and thousands of Green supporters we are asking you to take action to ensure that a million votes aren't stranded.

How can you help?

Tap into your connections, if you know someone in Saanich-Gulf directly or through extended contacts, get a hold of them and ask them to sign up at pairvote.ca until April 30, and on May 1 or 2 to use http://apps.facebook.com/voteswapcanada which will work right up until the polls close.

Get more voters in swing ridings willing to vote Liberal (most close races involve a Liberal).

Visit the swap statistics page to see the list of swing ridings. If you live in a swing riding, consider switching your preferred vote to Liberal.

Let the local Green organizing team know there are 2500 potential swaps(!). When they go door-to-door, urge them to give Liberal/NDP supporters the option of vote swapping through Pair Vote.

Email emaytowin@greenparty.ca or better yet, phone 778-426-4494.

Without your help, thousands of Greens who wanted to help May must be asked to vote for their third choice party to elect a second and third choice MP, to prevent a Harper false majority.

This would at least keep the doors open to electoral reform and preserve party per-vote funding, vital to the Green Party's continued viability as a national party.

This will happen anyway to some voters, but at least May will be in the House to argue strenuously for electoral reform and fair funding for all parties.

What else can YOU do?
If you are actively working on the Green campaign going door-to-door please remember to get the word out about PairVote.ca

* Mention pair voting to Liberal and NDP supporters.
* Contact your local media.
* Tell your FB friends about PairVote OR urge them to use the VoteSwap Canada application @ http://apps.facebook.com/voteswapcanada.
* Connected to the Vote Mob movement? Spread the word!
* Educate others or learn more about vote pairing http://voteswap.ca/FAQ and http://pairvote.ca/FAQ

To ensure we make the best swaps possible, support Project Democracy, who are trying to raise $5000 to do local polling in very tight races. Spread the word, and make a contribution here

There are less than 2 days left before our final round of swaps. Thanks for your help in being part of the change, and let's all keep calling for electoral reform!

All the best,
The Pair Vote team

Read http://www.votepair.ca/faq

All source code and algorithms are available for public inspection.

Our mailing address is:
Pair Vote
44 Cambridge Pl
Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6A 6E9

Does strategic voting even work? Apparently not without precision planning.

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Final round: what to expect

Deadline: Saturday, 6 pm EDT to get in on the final round. Read below how to ensure you are included
This is it. The big moment is almost here. Saturday is the final day for registering for vote-swap pairings for the May 2nd federal election! Here is what you need to know before the final swaps are made:

Need a new pair? Update your profile and ‘reset’ your swap. This way you and your partner will be released to be re-matched.

No longer interested: Of course we are sorry to see you go but before you do:
Already matched swappers: before you unsubscribe login to update your profile and ‘reset’ your swap .
Not matched? Just unsubscribe


Everyone will get an email, either with their swap or notification a swap wasn’t possible, and how they can still try and find one on their own.

Expect an email Saturday evening (tonight), within an hour or two of the deadline. Contact your vote partner right away to confirm the swap.

Ranked ridings posted. Have a look at how we've ranked the ridings in order to do the swaps.

Important note about swing / non-swing pairings
If you live in a swing riding, do not despair if you are paired with someone in a riding where your preferred party has no chance of winning. This is still far better than voting alone because:

1. You can vote strategically and
2. Have a vote cast for your party who can’t win locally

On your own, you can only do #1 or #2. Together is better. What we are doing here is nothing short of amazing. You are part of a huge grassroots movement to bring about real change, not only in this election, but for the future of democracy in Canada. We've done dozens of national and local media interviews, including CBC, Globe and Mail, and Global TV. Vote swapping is a story that resonates. Just imagine what will happen in the next federal election when we have 50,000 people registered, making 15,000 key swaps across our country. That can change who becomes government, and when that happens we will see electoral reforms. That's where we're headed.
Thanks for your help in being part of the change.

All the best,
The Pair Vote team

Questions? Read http://www.votepair.ca/faq

2 hours 34 minutes or so: last call is 6PM EDT tonight

http://www.votepair.ca/

If you still want to swap your vote, or see you were not swapped this election by pairvote do not fear!
ALL IS NOT LOST
You can still arrange a vote swap in 3 ways:

1. You can arrange a vote swap with a friend or colleague in another riding on your own, at any time. Post on your Facebook wall or send an email to your friends asking if any of them may be interested in a swap. The advantage of this method is that you’re talking to people you already know and trust, so you can have faith that your vote swap partner will stick to your agreement!
2. You can try the Voteswap Facebook Application http://www.littleurl.net/fa2629
. This application is separate from PairVote.ca, but will give you a real-time, complete list of people who are interested in vote swapping and who are comfortable voting for your preferred party. You can browse a list of possible matches, and then contact a possible partner directly through Facebook.
3. You can leave a comment on this page, asking people to get in touch with you to make a direct swap.

Correspondence re: vote share --

My initial contact:
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You can help to make this one of the happiest nights of my life! See, my brother is running (and winning) NDP in Weston, Ontario. If it were not for this pair vote I would have *had* to vote Liberal here.

Anyway, thanks to you, I get to vote NDP! With my own X! and support the Liberal Party where it counts. Thank you. Let me know if you have any problem and be assured that I have every intention, unless I hear otherwise from those good folks at pairvote.ca, to vote NDP in my riding, with your vote! Is that as OK with you as it obviously is with me? I will donate to the NDP, connive to get other NDP votes out of my friends and family members. LET ME KNOW.

Paired voter's response:
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Thanks for your message. The incumbent in my Winnipeg South Centre riding is the Liberal candidate Anita Neville, who is in a close race with the Conservative. Apparently the latter are really targeting this constituency as one they can win. Normally I would vote NDP, but their candidate here has no chance. I will therefore be happy to swap votes with you in hopes of re-electing Neville and defeating the Conservative. Best of luck with your brother's candidacy in Weston. I'll be looking for the name on election night!

My reply:
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Very good news. Thank you. The reason for my wanting to support Liberals is that I have been diagnosed as having 'MS', which means I have been discriminated against by neurologists, the Canadian Multiple Sclerosis Society, the government of Canada (ministry of health), and all provincial colleges of physicians and surgeons, to block the progress of a simple angioplasty procedure in favour of expensive medication and doctoring. Dr. Kirsty Duncan, MP from Etobicoke, who should be prime minister, has been a tireless campaigner on our behalf. The record of this is on her web site, and in Hansard. Mike Ignatieff announced pan-Canadian clinical trials before the election was even called. A lot of 'MS' patients do not have time to wait for another election.

I was at the English debates. Not much to see, except Jack's jokes. Elizabeth May won.

So thanks again. May you be an hour in heaven before the devil knows you're dead.

I think it's great, 1eye, to take action as you are doing.

I voted. If you're a Canuck, and you haven't voted too many times already, you can too. It's fun! Meet your neigbours. Smell the fresh air.

Polls close in a while. I wish us all the best of luck with the next bunch.

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."