A group called Vote Together has started a strategic voting campaign in the Kitchener Centre riding, which the group says is an important battleground in the upcoming election.

Vote Together is targeting Kitchener Centre to ask people to vote against incumbent Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth, because they say the area is a swing riding that saw a close result in the last federal election.

"Generally in voting we tend to think people should vote for the candidate or the party they like the best. Strategic voting sort of turns that on its head, and suggests that you vote against the party you least want to see win," said Barry Kay, a political science professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, in an interview with Craig Norris on The Morning Edition Wednesday.

What is 'strategic voting?'

Kay defined strategic voting as a vote against, rather than a vote for, a party or candidate. Although Canadian voters cannot vote directly against a candidate, by casting a ballot for the most-likely-to-win second choice rather than an undesired front-runner, the voter has cast their vote strategically.

It's not necessarily a vote in favour of the candidate you might prefer, Kay explained, but rather it's a vote for the candidate with the best chance of defeating the candidate you don't want to win.

A competitive riding

"Kitchener Centre is a competitive riding and in fact, it's a riding which right now looks like the Conservatives probably would lose it. Of all the ridings in the immediate Waterloo Region area, Kitchener Centre perhaps along with the Waterloo riding, are the ridings that the Conservatives can feel least confident in and are probably dropping in the polls right now," said Kay.

Kay said it's usually an elite group that considers the idea of strategic voting, a group that is usually better-informed about politics than the average voter.

"Most people don't vote strategically and the whole notion of strategic voting is very constituency-specific," he said."It varies from riding to riding, one sort of has to develop an awareness of past voting trends."

Kay said he has seen campaigns like this before, but they aren't often effective.

"The re-election of Mike Harris in 1999, there was some organized attempts by people who were unhappy, did it have some impact yes, but it ultimately wasn't successful, Harris ultimately got a majority again," said Kay.

Vote Together plans on naming a total of 72 ridings where they'll focus their efforts in door-to-door campaigns.