Vote Compass launches for 1st time for Manitoba provincial election

Want to know how closely your views align with Manitoba's major political parties heading into the provincial election? Vote Compass can help you figure it out.

The online tool has launched for Manitobans, the first time it has been made available for a provincial election in Manitoba.

• VoteCompass: Manitoba Votes 2016

The tool was developed by Vox Pop Labs and has been used in 17 different elections previously.

In Canada, it's been used at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, as well as in elections in the United States and Australia.

The online tool asks 30 public policy questions and then calculates the user's alignment with parties.

You can then see issue by issue how you stand relative to the parties.

"You can also access statements that are drawn from party literature or newspaper articles or other documents that explain in detail the position of the party on that detail," said Greg Kerr, the research manager at Vox Pop Labs. "It helps individual users see how their views align with those of the parties, but on the other hand, we also are able to collect an enormous amount of public opinion data."

The tool also includes questions of the day, which draw on issues that have become prominent in elections that creators of the tool didn't predict before making it.

"Typically during an election campaign there will only be a handful of issues that really gain prominence in public discourse," said Kerr. "Vote Compass covers 30 public policy issues – so a much broader range of issues than are typically discussed during an election campaign."

Kerr cautioned the tool is not a "how-to-vote guide."

"It's a spring board. It's a starting point from which you can learn more about the public policy issues that are at play during the campaign," he said.

What Winnipeggers thought

Pierre Tuesday, age 47, tried the survey on Monday. He didn't vote in the previous provincial election and doesn't think he will in the upcoming one.

"When the time comes on the day, I'll see how I'll feel," he said. "I don't have enough information about all of the people."

He said the tool helped illuminate things a little, but he'd need to do more research before voting.

"It's interactive. It gets people thinking of the elections in general. It makes me feel part of the process," he said. "Right now, I'm not going to vote, but it might change."

Red River College student Evan Bergen gave it a trip and said it touched on a lot of topics.

"Surveys like this, people who want to engaged more, can," he said.

Riki Wuerz, who wasn't old enough to vote in the last provincial election, said the survey had surprising questions.

"There's a lot of questions I don't normally ask myself and I probably should know more about. It's good to make yourself ask a lot more questions about what's going on in society," she said.

Manitobans head to the polls April 19.

To access Vote Compass, click here.