Interesting. Very Interesting.

Stephen Harper has made a huge tactical blunder. He's pissed off the Opposition parties just enough to make them work together and now he's given them enough time to get organised. Good work!

It's The Stupid Economy

Anybody who has spent any time amongst Canadians in the last few days will be aware that the main talking point is the economy. It might take the form of gas prices or wondering whether their job or their pension is safe. Barring a major incident it's safe to say that this will be the defining factor in next month's election. So how do the parties approach their campaigning;

The Conservatives have been dealt an easy hand by the Liberals. They just need to keep telling people that the Green Shift will cut into Canadians pockets. Job done.

The Liberals need to emphasise the tax cutting aspect of their plan (this is a damage limitation exercise rather than a winning strategy) and they need to link the Conservatives with big business, and portray them as distanced from the average worker.

The NDP need to be the Liberals but without the Green Shift. They should emphasise that they intend to be the consumers friend who will monitor price gouging more than any other party.

The Greens need to.......well, the Greens are dead in the water.

Leaked Memo

I have had exclusive access to a Democratic Party memo that proposes a strategy for the upcoming Vice President debate. At the end of the debate Joe Biden will turn to Sarah Palin and say;

"That'll do pig. That'll do."

I think that this is a mistake.

Don't Blink Twice, It's Alright

I don't really want to comment on the US Elections (but I will anyway). In her interview with Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin was asked if she had any hesitation about accepting the role of Vice President. She said not, and emphasised this by asserting that "you can't blink" in these kinds of situations. Implying that you have to act immediately.

Well she's wrong. The sign of a good leader (in any walk of life)is not one who acts without thinking but one who acts intelligently and with reason. The Canadian election has provided examples of people acting "without blinking" in the form of e-mails and press releases. They have lived to regret it.

I have never read Sun Tzu's fabled "Art of War" but I'm willing to bet that one of the pieces of advice isn't "act immediately with no fore-thought". Politics (once you are in power) is a game of chess, but too many of today's politicians think that boasting about their lack of thought is an electoral asset. The worrying thing is that they might just be right.

Harper Comes Clean

Speaking about the Danny William's ABC campaign yesterday Stephen Harper said "No-one can tell a Newfoundlander and Labradorian how to vote" (presumably he doesn't think that this applies to the rest of Canada). He also said;

"Voting is about your own best interests"

Nothing about what's best for the country? Or the community? It's just about me? The strength of the Conservative message in uncertain times is that it gives the individual the hope or belief that they can overcome the general trend of economic downturn. However it would probably be wise for Harper to put his point across in a slightly more succinct manner in the future.

A Little Advice

The polls indicate that the Conservatives have had the best of the campaign so far. Largely due the fact that they have been able to concentrate on getting their own issues across whilst deflecting the focus of the opposition through personal attacks.

If any of the other parties wish to make any significant headway then they need to spend some time speaking to the electorate about what they intend to do. Here is one issue from each platform that they should spend a few days emphasising so that the idea becomes stuck in the electorates heads as representative of their policies;

Liberal Party- 10% income tax cuts to most Canadians (It takes a special kind of genius to have this as one of your main policies yet fail to get it across. Stop emphasising the "Green Shift" aspect of the plan and emphasise the tax cutting aspect).

NDP- Ban charges for ATM withdrawals (This would have a much more immediate impact on Canadians than the Conservative's tenuous and ill-defined fuel duty cut and it would position the NDP as the consumer's friend in the minds of the voters).

Green Party- Begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan no later than February 2009 (The Greens are still not perceived as anything other than a one issue party, this would give them the chance to portray themselves as more wide ranging and be very popular).

Good Work All Round

It's so pleasing to know that this election is doing wonders for Canada's standing in the world.

Parties and the People

In a quite frankly bizarre turn of events the blogger "Buckdog" has been threatened with legal action by the Green Party because he posted the clip of Elizabeth May possibly calling Canadians "stupid". I really don't need to point out the sheer hypocrisy of attempting such a course of action the day after you have portrayed yourselves as victoriously fighting for free speech but this only emphasises the relevance of my previous post. People should think and think again before they send off e-mails that are ultimately detrimental to their party.

This action also highlights an increasing trend within politics. I'm tempted to call it the "Palinization" of the parties. They no longer view the media (and I include bloggers in that) as having the right to challenge and criticise. They view the media as being a conduit between them and the voters. They produce a political ad and expect the TV stations to run it. They hold a rally and expect it to be on the nightly news. The disturbingly sad truth of course is that they have been right in their expectations. Politicians are more and more allowed to call the shots about when and how they are quizzed. The debates fiasco is a prime example of a situation where a principled media would have said "these are the rules and it's your choice if you wish to appear" but instead we get the leaders of the parties hammering out backroom deals.

The Green party tried to portray themselves as being apart from this kind of shabbiness yet clearly they are not.If they wanted to take take issue with the clip that Buckdog posted then they should explain why, and not resort to the bully-boy tactics of the multi-national corporations that they seemingly abhor.

Danger! Danger!

The Internet is a wonderful tool for political parties. It allows them to target vast numbers of voters at very little expense. It allows them to be creative and appealing in ways that they can't achieve on television or radio. It allows them to reach demographics that were out of reach just a few short years ago. Unfortunately it also allows them to make complete asses of themselves.

The suspension of Ryan Sparrow is a case in point. Apparently he thought that it would be a good idea to use a dead soldier to make political capital and has now paid the price. It's ironic that this should happen on September 11th because it has similarities to an incident in Britain in which a staffer for Tony Blair put out an e-mail during the terrorist attacks saying that this would be a good time "to bury bad news". She was also fired.

There should be a cast iron rule at all party headquarters dealing with this kind of missive. Once it's written wait for 30 minutes until you send it out (I know we live in an instant information age but it can wait), make sure that at least 5 people read it without being told what it's about (what some people think is clever other people think is crass (as Ryan found out), and finally re-check everything and wait another 30 minutes before hitting send.

It might just save your career.

Why Harper Is Winning

He may have the charm of a halibut and the warmth of an iceberg but incredibly Stephen Harper is the most media friendly of the main candidates. Sure the NDP have embraced new media better than any other of the other parties, and it is doing them some good in the numbers, but they can't get away from the fact that Jack Layton looks like the uncle at a party who's going to tell you a string of boring stories about his army days. Similarly the Liberals can't get away from the fact that Stephane Dion looks like he would be much happier discussing existential philosophy than hard economics.

So that leaves us with Harper. At worst he comes across as a boring middle manager who never quite made it to the top of the tree. At best he comes across as......well, a boring middle manager who never quite made it to the top of the tree. But at least it's management right?

The Big Issue?

At the time of writing the Liberal Party website is dominated by the slogan "Liberals will invest in food safety".

Sure food safety is important, but I guarantee that you can count the number of people who will cast their vote based on this on the fingers of no hands.

An Inherent Contradiction

The "Green Shift" policy of the Liberals contains the following sentence;

"Energy costs are soaring all over the world. While energy prices continue to rise, we need to encourage energy efficiency. We need to change wasteful habits. We need to discourage polluting activities."

So how do they propose promoting energy efficiency? By increasing prices. But surely if "energy costs are soaring" this will reduce the way people use pollutants? Or are the Liberals saying that people won't reduce their usage just becasue prices are going up, and if so why propose an increase in prices? Their argument is circular and invalid.

One Final Word

Before the whole debate shambles sends me to an early grave through boredom let me just say a few words about the role of the media. On CBC's website today they say that May was originally not allowed to appear in the debates because 3 other parties opposed this. Are they saying that if the Liberals, Bloc Quebecois and the NDP opposed Stephen Harper appearing that they would go along with that too? No, I didn't think so. The media have a huge influence on any election and it is incumbent on them to be honest and to be challenging. So far the coverage has been neither. We are subjected to an array of press conferences with very little challenge to what is being said.

The networks are not just there to relay the news they are also there to speak for their viewers, to ask questions and to challenge.

Great Leadership

"PM Harper’s spokesman says “If the NDP has decided they are changing their position… we will not stand alone on that point.” Harper will now participate in a debate, even with Elizabeth May present."

So now that the other guys are doing it I'll do it too. Marvellous.

The Green Party And Political Savvy

Watching CBC news last night there was a piece on the decision to not allow Elizabeth May to speak at the debates. In one clip she was shown shouting across the street to a supporter ;

"It's actually doing me a favour because it's getting me sympathy!"

Some advice- if you are gaining sympathy for a supposed wrong then you don't go shouting about how good that is, especially not in the street, and especially not with cameras on you. When the cameras are on you then you retain your sense of outrage.

The Green Party needs to show not just how earnest it is but also that it can be competent. So far, not so good.

Harper Responds To Taliban

As I reported yesterday the Taliban has demanded that Canadian troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan, and Stephen Harper has responded by announcing that they will all be out by 2011. No doubt the Taliban will be delighted with this news but I suspect that they are unaware of Harper's record of keeping to fixed time tables.

He Without Sin

The decision to not allow Elizabeth May to participate in the debates has caused much fury on blogs of all political shades. I have said earlier that I fundamentally disagree with this decision and that the Green Party is a legitimate political entity in Canada and should be allowed a hearing.

What strikes me as slightly jarring is that many of the blogs that demand free speech for Elizabeth are not so quick to hand it out themselves. Far to many blogs have moderated comments or force people to register if they wish to comment. This means that as a reader I am not fully confident that I am seeing a genuine reaction from the blogger's audience.

I appreciate the difficulty with "trolls" and offensive comments but if you are going to stand up for free speech then you really need to practice what you preach.

News From Abroad

The Taliban has urged the next Canadian Prime Minister to pull troops out of Afghanistan. This leads me to two conclusions;

1) The Taliban are the only non-Canadians who are actually aware that an election is taking place.

2) There is a frightening dearth of willingness by any of the parties to deal with this issue in the campaign.

Vote For Me For Cheaper Food!

Stephen Harper today announced that the Conservatives would cut excise duty on diesel by half. Obviously this runs contrary to their stated aim of achieving a "practical, achievable plan to clean up Canada’s air, land and water and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

But from the point of view of electoral politics it makes perfect sense. A Liberal imposed carbon tax has already proved unpopular in British Columbia and at a time of international economic downturn people are going to vote with their wallets.

The other parties have been thrown down a real challenge and they need to come up with something better than righteous indignation and half-hearted feel good phrases.

Interesting Times?

There is an old Chinese curse that goes "May you live in interesting times". Well the folks in the USA are currently doing so in their election. A gripping, historic campaign that offers genuine choice between the two (or 3 if you count Palin) candidates. The downside to that is the huge swathes of resentment and antipathy that are being built up on either side and will surely unleash itself as anger and mistrust from whichever side loses.

Here in Canada we have no such problems. The whole agenda of all the parties seems to be "let's not make this too interesting". I hate the bland nature of what Canadian politicians represent but maybe, just maybe, it's for the best.

Who AreYou?

The NDP have been using the Who track "Won't Get Fooled Again" during this campaign. I'm not so sure that a song with the line "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" is exactly the right message for this party.

Green Party Strategy

It's fairly obvious that the Greens are not going to be a major force in this election. However it is entirely possible that they could hold some balance of power and be influential if they increase their vote. How do they do this?

The main mistake that Green parties across the world make is to focus on their "greenness" during an Elction campaign. You know what? We can tell by your name that you are environmenetally friendly. What we want to know is what you are going to do about crime and schools and the hospitals.

I disagree with the decision to preclude the Greens from the television debates but they need to promote thselves as more than a one issue party in a much more effective way.

I Have A Life!!

Liberal leader Stephane Dion was recently quoted as saying;

"I have a life like everyone"

Now that is a campaign slogan to get everybody excited. The Election is in the bag for the Liberals!

Sigh!

One of the most depressing aspects of the current campaign is the tactics adopted by the Conservative Party. Just looking back through a series of their press releases emphasises the negative nature of their tactics.

Surely a Government in any kind of power should be trying to energise an electorate with what they can offer rather than trying to terrify them of the opposition?

This is all desperately symptomatic of the current state of Canadian politics.

Fair and Balanced?

The major networks have announced that the Green Party will not be permitted to participate in the nationally televised debates. It's difficult to see this as anything other than the bigger parties banding togeher to squeeze out a potential rival.

Election Coming

The Canadian Election has been set for October 14th 2008;




Here are links to the main parties websites.

The Conservative Party

The Liberal Party

Bloc Quebecois

New Democratic Party

The Green Party

Over the coming weeks I will looking at where each party stands on the main issues and speaking to individual members to find out their hopes and concerns.