Election puzzler

What really puzzles me about the way people vote, at least in Canada, is their undying devotion to one political party. This devotion seems based less on actual platform content and more on ideology. Everyone truly has a right to vote for who they want, but I find this approach absurd. Although I am a Liberal by ideology and have traditionally voted this way in many elections, I have been known to vote otherwise when the Liberals either aren't inspiring me, or I am leaning toward the platform of another party (as is the case now). But I have met many people who are either voting a certain way because it's the lesser of two evils - as if there are only two political parties in our country (there are 5+ if you count the Bloc Quebecois), or worse, they're not voting at all because they don't believe their vote will mean anything or because it's their way of protesting the current situation.

OK, the worst thing you can do in an election is abstain from voting. Your so called protest means nothing if your vote wasn't registered for something or someone. Also, just because you won't vote for the party most likely to get elected (based on polls), doesn't mean the best thing to do is abstain because your vote doesn't matter. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Even if the polls are right and your worst fear is realized, the undesired (to you) party winning with 35% of the vote paints quite a different picture and sends quite a different message than the same party winning with 60% of the vote thanks in part to the abstainers.

But I've also heard people proclaim that even though they don't like either of the two leading political parties, they will vote for one of them because they're unsure of what would happen if one of the fringe parties got elected. Seriously, what's the worst that can happen? Four years of foul-ups, followed by another election. If a party screws up badly enough, they'll suffer the ramifications for many elections to come. So in my mind, there is no permanent damage that could come from voting for someone other than the Liberals or Conservatives. In fact, as the other parties get more support, their ideas are slowly embraced by some of the major parties. Don't take my word for it - the Liberals stole the carbon tax idea right from the Green's play book without so much as a thank you note.