see, a lot of historical liberal voters like myself (although i voted ndp in '04, '06 and '11) like the idea of...the ndp have moved out of this space, but the greens have maybe moved in to it. what we like is the idea of giving the liberals executive control and forcing them to have to listen to a party on their left to stay in power. that is, we'd prefer to keep a three or maybe four party system and then force the liberals to work in a minority. the reason is that we're broadly liberals, but we lean a little to the left of the party heads and want a little bit of a check on their "bay street" instincts. we're liberal voters, and we think the liberal politicians want to lean in our direction, but we're aware of the power of money when governments are left unchecked. so, it's a desire to modify the balance of power in such a way that forces the party to change the way it calculates things.

consider the following scenario: if you substitute the greens in (and that probably won't happen this election), we could see a circumstance arise where the liberals start dragging their feet under oil industry pressure. forcing them to need green party support to pass the budget would give them the incentive they need to stop dragging their feet. there's an argument (it's maybe a little off) that this is basically the dynamic we got our health care system under.

nowadays, the ndp are likely going to need that leftward pressure to act as well, rather than being it themselves. but, the same logic applies, should they form a government.

i'm a supporter of the av, and it is partly for that reason. any kind of pr, on the other hand, strikes me as a way to move against that sort of dynamic and put more power in the hands of the party executives.

in an av vote, and despite identifying more as a liberal than a dipper or a green (and in fact being left of the spectrum), and certainly depending very strongly on the actual candidate, my av preferences would probably consistently be

1. green
2. ndp
3. liberal

...unless the specific liberal riding candidate is clearly preferable, or the green candidate is obviously a right-winger [which happens sometimes]. in this election, because the ndp are ahead, and the green candidate does not appear to be terrible, and the liberal candidate is of mixed appeal to me, it would be:

1. green
2. liberal
3. ndp

that is, because the ndp appear to be ahead, my preference would be to vote for a liberal to act as a check on their power.

but, in the fptp, in my riding, i'm probably going to end up voting liberal - because i do broadly prefer the liberal party positions, and neither of the candidates is stellar.

the polling on majority v minority preferences does seem to indicate that there's quite a few people thinking in these terms.

www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/09/11/how-a-different-electoral_n_8125358.html