Debt, deficit ‘not ballot booth issues’ for most Canadians: pollsters
A majority of Canadian voters doesn’t rank balancing the budget or managing federal debt as key issues, say two leading pollsters. The proportion of people who say Canada’s federal debt should be a top priority for the government fell from 88 per cent during the debt crisis in the mid-1990s to 61 per cent this […]
Could elections be about measurable goals?
Another election season with its caricatures of professional wrestling. Personal insults. Skeletons in closets. Spending promises with unstated conditions and no accounting for results. Financial treats for major voting groups. Sound bites. Political theatre. It’s what we might call pandering politics, and it distorts democracy because it ignores how well Canada is doing overall as […]
The Trudeau record: promises kept and broken
OTTAWA—Populists on the right are the best communicators we have ever seen. They boil complex issues down to bumper sticker slogans which voters can remember. Liberals and progressives, well that’s another story. They seem to translate bumper sticker slogans into paragraphs, pages, or PhD theses, making sure to address all the nuances and to use […]
Scare tactics still a winning strategy for Grits, Tories
VANCOUVER—It has been an eventful campaign so far, but the question now is, where will this all take us? Both Jagmeet Singh and Yves-François Blanchet have made big personal breakthroughs. Singh, in particular, is building capital, not just within NDP partisans but among other parties’ supporters as well. As a result, more voters are considering […]
‘It’s definitely in the top quadrant’: election campaign one of dirtiest in recent history, say political insiders
With the 2019 election in the home stretch and both parties still running neck and neck in national polls, some political insiders are describing the current campaign as one of the dirtiest in recent history, which was also predicted months in advance by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. “It’s probably in […]
Elections, democracy face watershed moment while society transforms digitally
As Canadians get set to cast their votes, the country’s electoral system and its democracy face a defining moment. As society undergoes a digital revolution, our voting and governance systems are leaving people behind. There are many challenges facing elections, democracy, and how societies are governed. Modern pressures include factors such as fake news and previously […]
Party leaders’ campaign stops, so far
An overview of where the four party leaders have been travelling since the election was called on Sept. 11.
Tight contest between Liberals, Conservatives, lower voter turnout could benefit third parties, experts say
With the Liberals and the Conservatives deadlocked in the polls, and the country potentially headed for a minority-government situation, some political analysts anticipate more malleable voters may feel less compelled to choose either of the frontrunners. High turnout in the 2015 election was a boon for the Liberals, who ascended to form a majority after […]
Trudeau’s Liberals outpacing Scheer’s Conservatives in Facebook ad spending
Liberals have spent about $1-million on Facebook ads so far in the election campaign, deploying more funds than the Conservatives and the NDP combined, according to a new study published Thursday. The Conservative Party spent roughly $640,000 on Facebook between when the election was called on Sept. 11 and Oct. 4, running fewer candidate-focused campaigns […]
The Arctic is being overlooked in this election
The silence is deafening. Unless you live in the Arctic, as I do, you probably haven’t heard anything about the region that makes up more than half of Canada’s territory. That’s frustrating, given the attention the Arctic received before the election was called when the Government of Canada made a number of announcements and released […]
