Strategic and Sincere Voting in a One-Sided Election: The Canadian Federal Election of 1997

Objective. We are interested in whether and how voters make strategic decisions in a race that is, according to the polls, expected to be very one sided. Looking specifically at the choices available to ideologically right-of-center voters in the 1997 Canadian federal election, we argue that strategic considerations will be filtered by voters' assessments of the competitiveness of the race both locally and nationally. Methods. We estimate logistic regression models measuring support for the two right-of-center Canadian political parties. Our models focus on the relationship between assessments of district-and national-level party prospects on voting for the Progressive Conservative Party. Results. We find that voters who consider the race competitive emphasize district-level data in their strategic calculations. However, those who consider the election to be all but over look more closely at national-level concerns when deciding which right-wing party to support. Conclusions. We conclude that earlier understandings of tactical voting should be updated to take into consideration the circumstances under which voters will use national-level evaluations of relative party viability in casting their ballots.