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.