With a tight political race heading into the election, strategic voting is being brought up more and more.

It's always overestimated. - Pierre Martin

In fact, one organization, Leadnow is running an active campaign in one Saskatoon riding to try and make sure the Conservative candidate doesn't win.

But is the call for strategic voting effective?

"It remains a marginal factor," said Pierre Martin, a political science professor in Montreal.

Martin was a guest today on CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.

"It's always overestimated. People do, in the end, tend to vote overwhelmingly for the parties that they prefer, even though they may be fairly aware that their party may not have a chance to defeat the party that they least prefer," Martin said.

The role of social media

Social media, however, is still a relatively new tool for federal campaigns, and this time around, platforms like Twitter are steeped in content urging people to vote strategically.

Still, Martin remains sceptical. He told Saskatoon Morning host Leisha Grebinski that although the message is pervasive on social media, it is mainly reaching the politically aware. Generally, those people are among the most partisan members of society.

"The people who are more likely to be reached by this notion of strategic voting are also the people least likely to be swayed by it," he said.

According to Martin, the most effective way to swing votes is the old fashioned way, by allowing people to feel like they are supporting the best party.

"When we see movement in opinio,n it does tend to be related more to people seeing positive reasons to support a party rather than negative reasons."