I love using Vote Compass in federal and provincial elections. But it just doesn’t work for Municipal elections. And here’s why.

In a federal or provincial election, the Party platforms are analyzed and used as a base indicator for matching your answers to the Vote Compass questions. For example, if one party has a strong platform and record of supporting climate change science, and it matches your answers, Vote Compass will indicate that your beliefs line up with their platform.

However, in a Municipal Vote Compass survey, your, the voter’s answers, are compared to the candidate’s answers, not to a large Party platform that has been published and tested. For example, when you take the Vote Compass Survey you may indicate support for protection of greenspace and farmland, and a slowdown to unsustainable housing development.

The candidate, despite their voting record, may have indicated the same support in his answers to Vote Compass. In my particular Ward in Caledon, only one candidate has personally answered the Vote Compass questions in the most populous way of garnering votes despite their Council voting record. There are no answers from the other candidates for Mayor.

So, when the match came up at the end of the survey, it showed that my answers in support of greenspace and farmland protection matched strongly with the only Mayoral candidate that had taken the survey. That candidate was Mario Russo,  a Councillor whose voting record was in direct opposition to everything in which I believe. The candidate I am supporting had not taken the Vote Compass survey and therefore their answers could not be compared,

My reaction to seeing the Vote Compass indication of my agreement with Mario Russo’s actual policies was anger. Vote Compass should NOT be publishing any “alignment with candidate” policies unless every candidate has submitted answers to the Vote Compass survey.

To make it clear, I do not support Mario Russo for Mayor of Caledon. Vote Compass got it very wrong, The way I see it

Skid Crease,
Caledon