ALBERTA: Provincial Elections!

[crazy canuck]

 

[Barrister]

FWIW, there is definitely some sharing of advice and stategies between political professionals in US, UK and Canada.  At least on the right.

[crazy canuck]

And on the left.

[derspiess]

; before, it used to be the same crappy, sugary-sweet "leader-walking-in-a-summer-field-with-children".

The best was the ads featuring Harper wearing a sweater to humanize him - just a loveable, down-home kinda guy, right? 

http://thingsharperdoestoseemhuman.tumblr.com/post/4218297066/wearing-sweater-vests

I loved this from that site:



Barely tolerating Bonhomme.


Reminded me of this: http://conaninto.danzinman.com/conaninto/triumph/outtakes.html  where Triumph calls Bonhomme the Michelin Man's gay cousin

[Barrister]

Wait - that's the Conservative Party logo on those hockey sweaters.

[Neil]

But the one that stroke me was the character assassination of Stéphane Dion while there was no electoral campaign. Or the more recent one against Thomas Mulcair.

If you had lived in English Canada, you would have seen the attacks that went out on Harper pretty much from when he united the parties.  The aggressiveness that the Conservatives have is a product of the circumstances of their birth.

[crazy canuck]

Going through those pictures makes me regret asking BB to run for political office.  Such a thing is a fate worse than death.

[Barrister]

But the one that stroke me was the character assassination of Stéphane Dion while there was no electoral campaign. Or the more recent one against Thomas Mulcair.

If you had lived in English Canada, you would have seen the attacks that went out on Harper pretty much from when he united the parties.  The aggressiveness that the Conservatives have is a product of the circumstances of their birth.

You know I kind of felt bad for the character attacks on Dion and Ignatieff, both of whom by all accounts seemed like pretty decent human beings.

Trouble is they were so damn effective - how can you not use such an effective strategy?

[crazy canuck]

The thing is both would have been disasters as PM, particularly Dion.

[viper37]

You know I kind of felt bad for the character attacks on Dion and Ignatieff, both of whom by all accounts seemed like pretty decent human beings.

had you lived in Quebec, you would not say that about Dion.

[viper37]

It isn't that Canadians are socially liberal, necessarily. Many Canadians echo BB's interests in conservatism of the respect-for-community type. It is just that they have no desire to bring US style ranting and raving about these issues north of the border, no matter what their own private views may be. 

I think this is key, but also only half-true. The last years have seen, on the right at least, an "Americanization" of the terms of debate and political culture; it is precisely because "US style raving and ranting" is already here that one can peg social conservatism as interested mainly in a replication of the old culture wars of the US. Conversely, while Harper has done his best to throw a bone from time to time to those of his base who subscribe to such, he is also a clear participant of the same Americanization, by blatantly imitating Rovian tactics, and getting a good number of his cues from Republican politicking. Which one is a by-product of the other, I am not sure - or perhaps they simply walk hand-in-hand.

political analysts have said that at least since the 1993 federal election.  And before that, well, I heard how the NO side campaigned in 1980 from my history classes.  I wouldn't say they were nice to Lévesque &co. It just wasn't done in the media.

[Barrister]

You know I kind of felt bad for the character attacks on Dion and Ignatieff, both of whom by all accounts seemed like pretty decent human beings.

had you lived in Quebec, you would not say that about Dion.

I'm pretty sure I would.

[Oexmelin]

The thing is both would have been disasters as PM, particularly Dion.

I doubt Dion would have amounted to anything as a PM - but would that justify the kind of attack ad he got?

Heck, I think Harper is a crypto-fascist and I don't think he should be the subject of attack ads... 

[Oexmelin]

political analysts have said that at least since the 1993 federal election.  And before that, well, I heard how the NO side campaigned in 1980 from my history classes.  I wouldn't say they were nice to Lévesque &co. It just wasn't done in the media.

Exactly. There is a qualitative difference between having an voice-over actor paid to recite lines about how evil, stupid, ugly (Mulroney's ad about Chretien, for instance) the other guy is - and having these lines repeated twenty times a day - and a politician owning to saying these things in person.

As for the referendum, you are right - but the stakes were quite a bit higher each time, as opposed to a federal election.

[Oexmelin]

And on the left.

Who?