Stephen Fuhr, the Liberal candidate for Kelowna-Lake Country, is encouraging voters to vote with their mind instead of their heart during next monthsa国际传媒檚 federal election on Oct. 21.

sa国际传媒淟etsa国际传媒檚 face it. The NDP is not getting into government nor are the Greens. That has got to weigh into your consciousness,sa国际传媒� he said.

sa国际传媒淲e have a two-horse race and the consequences to a blue (Conservative) government will really take away everything that the Greens and the NDP believe in sa国际传媒� and even the Liberals.sa国际传媒�

Fuhr said all of this rolls into what he calls a sa国际传媒渂usiness decisionsa国际传媒� sa国际传媒� commonly known as strategic voting.

sa国际传媒淚t shouldnsa国际传媒檛 be an emotional (decision),sa国际传媒� said Fuhr, during an all-candidates forum on Sept. 19.

sa国际传媒淭he Conservatives arensa国际传媒檛 going to deliver on what 80 per cent of Canadians want, so the way to stop that from happening would be to vote for the progressive person that can actually win.sa国际传媒�

When asked if he was encouraging strategic voting in the upcoming election, Fuhr said to sa国际传媒渧ote for the things that you care about but think about who can actually deliver those things.sa国际传媒�

Fuhr continued, saying its ultimately an individual decision and he hopes people vote for him based on the representation he gave his constituents over the past four years in Ottawa.

Other candidates in the riding took issue with Fuhrsa国际传媒檚 sentiment.

sa国际传媒淭he Liberals ran on a platform of electoral reform in 2015, they abandoned that in 2016 and the entire idea of electoral reform and proportional representation sa国际传媒� which is what the committee recommended sa国际传媒� is to avoid the need to vote strategically entirely,sa国际传媒� said Justin Kulik of the NDP.

sa国际传媒淚 think itsa国际传媒檚 a little backwards for the Liberals to have voted against adopting that report and then here in 2019 during the election, again telling voters that they need to vote strategically.sa国际传媒�

The Green Partysa国际传媒檚 Travis Ashley said that approaching the voting booth as a business decision is sa国际传媒渢errible advice.sa国际传媒�

sa国际传媒淪trategic voting seems to have not been working for the past 50 some-odd years,sa国际传媒� he said.

sa国际传媒淲e need to start voting with our hearts.sa国际传媒�

Capital News reached out to Tracy Gray, the local Conservative candidate, for comment, but did not hear back before deadline.

In 2015, Fuhr won Kelowna-Lake Country with just over 4,000 votes, however this came in part due to a deal between Fuhr and the ridingsa国际传媒檚 Green Party candidate at the time, Gary Adams.

Adams agreed to drop out of the race and support Fuhr in return for Fuhr promoting parts of the Green Party platform if elected. This resulted in a but no penalties were persued.

While not happy about it at the time, the deal was not opposed by federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May and she did not name another Green candidate to replace Adams in the riding in 2015.

-With files from Alistair Waters

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michael.rodriguez@kelownacapnews.com
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