Conservatives to stay course while trying to bring voters back into fold: strategists
As the Conservatives head into the last leg of their pre-election campaign, Tory strategists are expecting the party to stay the course on policy and spending announcements, keeping Prime Minister Stephen Harper front and centre while researching ways to frame the economic conversation and bring voters back into the fold. Conservative observers told The Hill […]
With election focus on urban Canada, influence of rural votes diminished
Shifting populations, voter demographics and recent changes to Canada’s electoral map have made urban centres the focus of the election campaign and diminished the potential influence of rural voters and ridings on the outcome this fall, experts say. Most rural ridings aren’t as volatile as hotly-contested urban battlegrounds, pollsters said, giving rural matters less prominence […]
Politics not immune to culture’s triumph of stupidity
My Conservative friend (yes, I have some) posted something noteworthy on Facebook. It was a picture of a sign bearing the words: STOP MAKING STUPID PEOPLE FAMOUS. In this week, the Kanye West week, it struck a chord. Most of the stuff one sees elsewhere on Facebook isn’t as noteworthy. There is the footage of […]
How positive ads build trust
One of the things that makes me a bit of an odd duck (yes, there are many things) is that I’m a big fan of so-called “negative” political ads. Lots of people hate them, but I love them. I love to write them, I love to produce them, I love to deploy them. Best of […]
Why is Harper still spending so much political capital pounding Trudeau?
The nice thing about being a political bystander is that you never suffer the consequences of a misplaced prediction. If I had a dollar for every pundit who predicted the death of the Liberal Party, I would be buried alive in cash. This past week, newshounds zeroed in on the possibility of Thomas Mulcair’s team […]
Political risks uncertain in expected TPP supply management concessions
Negotiations to reach a final Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement are entering the end stages and sources say the Canadian government will likely agree to supply management concessions in order to reach a deal, a potentially politically risky move right ahead of an election. A former senior adviser to the Conservative government familiar with the trade agenda […]
New voices, new approaches expected in 2015 campaign coverage
New media outlets on the Canadian political beat and resource-deprived traditional ones taking new approaches could make for election coverage this fall that’s less centered on the main trail and offers more variety for an increasingly splintered audience. Since Canadians last went to the polls in 2011, media organizations’ financial woes have largely continued, leading […]
Almost half of Canadians support Liberal child care plan: poll
More Canadians prefer the Liberal Party’s child care plan to the Conservatives’ Universal Child Care Benefit or the NDP’s $15-a-day plan, says a new poll. The Liberal plan to create a Canada Child Benefit based on income and the number of children received support from 47 per cent of Canadians, according to a poll by […]
How to democratically restrict third-party ad spending
Some recent commentary about advertising by third party interest groups (or political action committees, “PACs”) has been inaccurate and/or has included undemocratic or incomplete proposals for ensuring big money doesn’t dominate, let alone corrupt, Canadian politics. First, while a few new coalitions started up recently and started running paid ads (HarperPAC, Engage Canada, Working Canadians), […]
First Nations can make a vote difference in 51 ridings, says AFN’s Bellegarde
It is now six months into my term as National Chief and the first time we are gathering since that election. I want to thank all of you once again for your support and the honour you have given me. We are at an historic time in our history. For decades our people have struggled […]
