From taboo to tactic: How strategic voting could shake up this election [Video]

West of Centre is a weekly podcast about the priorities, preoccupations and politics of Canadians living in the West. Listen here or wherever you find your podcasts.

Alvin Finkel still remembers the day he was kicked out of the NDP.

The lifelong New Democrat from Edmonton had been running a website during Alberta’s 2012 provincial election to consolidate progressive votes behind certain Liberal, NDP and Alberta Party candidates.

His hope was that “strength in numbers” might help turn the tide against the then-dominant Progressive Conservatives and their rising rival, the Wildrose Party.

About 50 like-minded volunteers joined his cause, obsessing over polling data and fanning out across key ridings in Edmonton and Calgary to count lawn signs for each party, pinpointing non-conservative candidates with a real shot at victory.

The argument was simple: if left-of-centre urban voters concentrated their ballots behind one person, rather than splitting between three parties, they stood a better chance of winning.

It’s …