Can strategic voting impact the race in Windsor-Tecumseh?

A local Liberal candidate is calling on Windsor-Tecumseh residents to vote strategically in a bid to prevent another Conservative government in Ottawa.

Frank Schiller, the Liberal candidate in Windsor-Tecumseh, posted a note on Facebook a few days ago, in which he claimed that Tom Mulcair and the New Democrats will be unable to form the next government.

"Send Stephen Harper a message: Vote Frank Schiller!" the Facebook post ends.

Asked to explain the appeal he is making to voters, Schiller said it all comes down to having the people in Windsor-Tecumseh ensure that their vote will count on Oct. 19.

"Three out of four people in Windsor want change," he told CBC News in an interview. "The best way to effect the change that we want is to vote Liberal."

No local polls cited

In his Facebook posting, Schiller cited national and provincial poll figures from Nanos Research showing the Liberals ahead of the Conservatives, as of last weekend.

But no polls within the Windsor-Tecumseh riding were shared in Schiller's Facebook post.

Poll analyst Éric Grenier said that the Conservatives have a more efficient vote than the Liberals on a national level, though the latter have been improving in the polls.

"If the Liberals continue to pick up some steam, as they are in some recent polls, they could move into a position where they would be in a very advantageous spot and potentially pick up more seats than the Conservatives," he told CBC News in a telephone interview.

Who is more competitive with the Tories?

But Grenier said that the New Democrats have tended to consistently win ridings in specific parts of the country, which includes the Windsor area.

Windsor-Tecumseh has been held by the New Democrats since the riding was created in 2004, when Joe Comartin, who was the MP for Windsor-St. Clair, won it. 

Comartin isn't running for re-election, but Cheryl Hardcastle is trying to carry on the New Democratic tradition in the riding for the party.

Hardcastle said Schiller's call for strategic voting was "interesting," but she said the New Democrats are best placed to defeat the Conservatives at the polls — particularly in Windsor-Tecumseh, which she described as an NDP stronghold.

"If you're thinking about stopping Harper, you'd be more honest about the race in Windsor-Tecumseh, that's for sure," she said in a telephone interview.

"We know that we're in a strong position, we know that our campaign is strong."

Jo-Anne Gignac, the Conservative candidate in the riding, claims she doesn't pay attention to polls.

What Gignac wants voters to know is what she will do for them if she gets elected.

"They'll have no better advocate in Ottawa than Jo-Anne Gignac," she told CBC News in an interview, noting that she has been reminding voters of her record as a city councillor and a trustee before that.

'I'd rather focus on the issues'

After hearing about Schiller's appeal to voters, Green Party candidate David Momotiuk suggested his fellow candidate should be more concerned about the voters, not the party that may form government.

"Personally, I'm not so worried about the Harper government, so much as I'm worried about the voters here in Windsor-Tecumseh," he said in a telephone interview.

Momotiuk said he has heard about voters talking about making their decision on a basis of being against the Conservatives. But he doesn't see that as a way forward for candidates like himself.

"Running a campaign against one person is rather undemocratic," he said. "I think I'd rather focus on the issues that we're concerned about and where people stand according to their values and their priorities for this country."

Lydia Miljan, an associate professor of political science at the University of Windsor, said Schiller's plea for strategic voting is one that voters have heard before from the Liberals.

"It seems like a replay of the last few elections," she told CBC News in an interview.

But Miljan said that strategic voting tends to have minimal outcome on the final vote tally, in part because it is not a strategy that many voters consider.

"The strategic voters are people who are very active in politics and very knowledgeable of polls, and very knowledgeable of their own local race. That isn't your average voter," she said.