In some ridings it may be better to vote for one party and in other ridings it may be wiser to vote for another party. Please refer to CIC's most recent study entitled: "ELECTION 2004: TOWARDS COMMITTED VOTING -- GRADING MPs" which is the country's first research report that quantitatively evaluates MPs' performances on a roster of critical national and international issues. The study can be viewed at:
http://www.canadianislamiccongress.com/elections04.php

It is the position of MCM, given the current political realities, that the best outcome for the federal election would be a minority Liberal government with the support of the NDP. In addition, a Liberal government is more desirable than a Conservative government. This does not mean that we endorse the idea that Muslims all got out and vote Liberal. In fact, in some ridings this would not be desirable.

When making the decision regarding whom to vote for MCM suggests keeping the following four considerations in mind:

1) It is essential that the Conservatives do not receive any support from our community as their right-wing politics is neither good for the Muslim community nor for the nation as a whole. This party should not be given support in any riding.

2) In some cases there are candidates whose politics we find objectionable and even hostile to our community, so we should support those individuals who have the best chance of defeating the objectionable candidate.

3) There are candidates who have an established track record of standing up for social justice and have adopted principled positions on a number of key issues so they should be given our support.

4) Some political parties have a platform which comes close to our community's interests and thus they should be supported.

To find your electoral riding visit: http://www.elections.ca and type in our postal code. And the following link lists all 75 federal ridings in Quebec along with who is running for election in each riding:http://www.nodice.ca/election2004/ridings-quebec.html

And finally, Muslim voters across Canada are encouraged to participate in the Canadian Islamic Congress's exit poll by logging on to:http://www.canadianislamiccongress.com/election2004/form.php

MCM would like to stress that it is important to not just vote based on one or two isolated issues, but to study all the various issues and the candidate's positions on them and decide accordingly.