CBCnews

The strategy? No strategic voting

Stephen Harper made an unusually direct plea to his supporters at the end of a speech in Surrey, B.C., last night.

Political Bytes

Paul Hunter

In an area with a number of complicated races where supporters might be inclined to vote for, say, the NDP or Greens simply to try to prevent Liberals from winning a seat, Harper recognized those lost Tory votes might prevent his party from sneaking up the middle (via so-called "splits") to claim such a seat himself.

So, his words to the crowd:

"Friends I know you're all working hard, I encourage you to keep working hard. We are in an interesting time — it's like the stock market, the polls bounce up and down every day.

"Don't take anything for granted. We have got to work hard.

"We have got to make sure people don't get talked into some strategic voting — that they vote for the party they want to have run this country.

"Because we need that strong mandate to move this country forward."