#voting tips

ADVANCE VOTING = APRIL 18th-21st

ELECTION DAY = APRIL 28th

REMEMBER TO:

Check on the official Canadian elections site if you are registered to vote.

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Check on the official Canadian elections site what locations & times in your area polling will be taking place, as well as alternative ways to vote in your area if you cannot physically go to the polls.

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Have at least two (2) valid pieces of identification on you. (EX: Drivers license, Passport, any legal identification that shows you address being here in Canada, has your full legal name, and are over 18).

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Go to the polls with a safe person you know, or, if that is not possible, go to a more populated poll location.

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Do NOT share who you voted for before or after voting with ANYBODY in a public area, especially near polling locations.

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Do NOT wear anything associated with any political party for your personal safety and, if you see someone wearing such, do NOT interact with them. Reminder that voter intimidation is illegal.

GO VOTE & STAY SAFE IN THESE TENSE TIMES!

With the 2025 federal election happening on Monday April 28th I wanted to post some voting resources! :-D

The first video is a guide from the CBC on all the ways you can vote, it's pretty cut and dry. This covers voting early or day of, by mail or in person, at home or abroad, extra (run time 2:40min, Voting in the 2025 Canadian federal election, explained).

In addition here is the link to the home page of the Elections Canada website: Elections Canada - Home Page for the 2025 Federal Election

This is a nonpartisan voter information site where you can make sure you're registered to vote, see which parties are running in your riding- lots of bare bones info. Be warned they’re slow to update it.

Registered Political Parties and Parties Eligible for Registration – Elections Canada

Also on Elections Canada is the list of registered parties you can vote for in the 2025 federal election; each listing connects to the official party website if you want to check out their full platforms.

The second video is some online resource the CBC has set up to help make informed voting a little easier (run time 1:50min, How to use CBC News digital election tools - YouTube). Here are the site links:

Compare the election promises of Canada’s major parties | CBC News This website outlines the six major parties’ platforms. Remember this isn’t the full party platform and it’s curated to only highlight the main issues Canadian voters are claiming are important to them.

Poll Tracker | CBC News Pools lots of publicly available statistics from different polling sources (linked to at the bottom of the page) to make projections about the upcoming election.

Vote Compass - 2025 Canadian Federal Election Vote Compass, we’ve all seen these before, but this one is tailored to ask questions surrounding the hot button issues of this election. I tried it for fun, and my results surprised me a little (positive).

The third video is a brief refresher on how a Canadian federal election works (run time 9:38min, skip intro go from 1:20 to 3:30, Rusty on how Canadian elections work? We can help). I found their discussion on Canadian vs US politics thought-provoking. Second to last questions does pertain specifically to Quebec (where this was filmed) education policies, but is an interesting talking point around the education of civics.

Pretty much everything here is from the CBC, so here are some other (to my knowledge) private sector, nonpartisan Canadian news outlets covering the Canadian federal election:

CTV News – Breaking News and Video, Canada News Today

Global News | Breaking, Latest News and Video for Canada

The Canadian Press News Home

And an honorable mention to Canada's national Indigenous new network: Home - APTN News

March is primary and local election season. Make a difference in your area by voting.

I recommend looking at a few voters guides because the provided material can be overwhelming.

If you do get overwhelmed, complete what you can. Anything worth doing is worth doing half-assed because perfect is the enemy of done. If you vote on literally one issue that is better than none. You got this.

As someone who is some kind of progressive socialist, here's some ways I get started:

Ballotpedia.org and Vote411.org for basic information and often a sample of each candidates' stances. A neutral information source. There are other sources that tend to be state-specific

Search for "progressive voters guide primaries 2024"

Search for "DSA voters guide" [etc. same as above]. I don't always agree with their recommendations, but I find it a helpful source anyway

Local papers that you find trustworthy, such as Knock-LA for southern California. Some will be informational only which can be good.

And finally something I started doing more recently:

Search for right wing/Republican/conservative voters guides to figure out what to vote against. One year I found a local landlords association recommendation in a conservative area and wow it was a gold mine of things not to support.

It's not always true that you should vote against it of course, but if you can find one with reasons stated, they'll show which will, for example, support a "tough on crime" approach to issues.

They will say things like "candidates who will defend freedom, stand for free enterprise, or have a conservative worldview, based on their ability to stand firm against efforts to increase taxes, size of government, weaken law and order, and crush individual freedom."

Omg! Us too! All of the fics are SO GOOD!

If you need some pointers...

@thelittlefanpire creates a google doc to keep track of the fics as she reads and creates a point system to rank each one! It looks something like this:

@dylanobrienisbatman approaches it a little differently:

The way I like to do it is to vote as I read the fics! I pull up the voting survey, and as a I read each fic I rank it above or below the fics I’ve already read! For “overall rankings” I usually rank based on the use of the trope I feel is really most important to the structure of the story (for QR, it was the use of the fairy tale, for example) and then go from there! I try to read all the fics in one sitting so I can rank them with a clear head!

- Remember that polls typically open at 6AM and close at 7PM. I would recommend getting there early so you don’t have to wait as long in the line. 

- If you are in line by 7PM, you will typically still be allowed to vote. Therefore, make sure you are there before 7PM.

- Remember to bring your license or permit. If you don’t have one, some states accept forms of identification such as student IDs.

⚠️➡️Voting Hotlines/ Resources/Websites: Get A Free RIDE to the POLLS w/ LIME Use Code VOTE2025 in the Lime App for 2 (two) 30 mintue rides on an E-BIKE/E-SCOOTER FROM October 28-November 4 2025.

⚠️➡️ If you encounter any issues while voting, use the NAACP Voter Incident Report Form or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (866.687.8683).

⚠️➡️ https://www.vote.org/early-voting-calendar/

⚠️➡️ DNC’s Voter Protector Hotline: (833)-336-8683

⚠️➡️ ENGLISH 866-OUR-VOTE866-687-8683 SPANISH/ENGLISH 888-VE-Y-VOTA888-839-8682 ASIAN LANGUAGES/ENGLISH 888-API-VOTE888-274-8683 ARABIC/ENGLISH 844-YALLA-US844-925-5287

and oh boy did i find a prime example of a snake in the grass. a man who previously ran unsuccessfully as a republican changed his political party AND HIS NAME to the most irish-sounding name you can think of and won in the last cycle. he is currently a judge presiding over juvenile cases and has negative ratings by all the reviewing bodies. but he also has a high chance of keeping his position because people in my city often click yes to retain existing judges, especially if they're democrats with irish names.