Why the Liberals Will Win....Again
Has anyone seen the new Conservative and Liberal TV ads? For those of you outside Canada, we're in the middle of (another) election, which will no doubt return a Parliament that bears a striking resemblance to the one that just fell. All this for the low, low price of approximately $300 million to the Canadian taxpayers. We must be mad.
I'm not really that political - yet - but I am interested in the election. And I was more than a little interested by the stark difference in the styles of two TV ads run by the two main parties - Conservative and Liberal. Both tried to appeal to "normal" Canadians (like there are any!). But the Conservative ad came across as staged and goofy, while the Liberal ad was slick and, most importantly, did not have one Liberal politician - not even Martin (our PM) - in it. The Conservative ad had their leader (and I use that term very loosely) front and centre, and he played to his strength, which is looking nerdy and condescending at the same time. They were trying to do a mock interview and kept cutting back and forth between a fake media person, Harper (arguably a fake leader) and a fake normal Canadian. Do you get the picture? Fake, fake, fake! And they wonder why everyone thinks they have a hidden agenda.
The Liberal ad on the other hand was no doubt made by some Quebec ad agency who had a hand in the sponsorship scandal, has been dissolved and is now reconstituted under another name. No matter, they get value for their dirty money. The ad focused on normal Canadians (from every different region and ethnicity) talking about how wonderful the economy is under the Libs and how well everyone is doing - and that even Saskatchewan is now a "have" province! The production was professional, without being over the top, and the tone was upbeat. No Paul Martin whining on about how much he loves Canada. These guys are good. They know exactly what message to use and when to use it, and so I grudgingly have to respect them for being so damn media savvy.
And that, Virginia, is why the Stephen Harper Conservatives will never, ever form even a minority government. Ontario voters like well-produced ads. It's just that simple.
Has anyone seen the new Conservative and Liberal TV ads? For those of you outside Canada, we're in the middle of (another) election, which will no doubt return a Parliament that bears a striking resemblance to the one that just fell. All this for the low, low price of approximately $300 million to the Canadian taxpayers. We must be mad.
I'm not really that political - yet - but I am interested in the election. And I was more than a little interested by the stark difference in the styles of two TV ads run by the two main parties - Conservative and Liberal. Both tried to appeal to "normal" Canadians (like there are any!). But the Conservative ad came across as staged and goofy, while the Liberal ad was slick and, most importantly, did not have one Liberal politician - not even Martin (our PM) - in it. The Conservative ad had their leader (and I use that term very loosely) front and centre, and he played to his strength, which is looking nerdy and condescending at the same time. They were trying to do a mock interview and kept cutting back and forth between a fake media person, Harper (arguably a fake leader) and a fake normal Canadian. Do you get the picture? Fake, fake, fake! And they wonder why everyone thinks they have a hidden agenda.
The Liberal ad on the other hand was no doubt made by some Quebec ad agency who had a hand in the sponsorship scandal, has been dissolved and is now reconstituted under another name. No matter, they get value for their dirty money. The ad focused on normal Canadians (from every different region and ethnicity) talking about how wonderful the economy is under the Libs and how well everyone is doing - and that even Saskatchewan is now a "have" province! The production was professional, without being over the top, and the tone was upbeat. No Paul Martin whining on about how much he loves Canada. These guys are good. They know exactly what message to use and when to use it, and so I grudgingly have to respect them for being so damn media savvy.
And that, Virginia, is why the Stephen Harper Conservatives will never, ever form even a minority government. Ontario voters like well-produced ads. It's just that simple.
Comments
Policies though??? Hhhmmm.... I'd have to think on that one... Same folks I've voted for since I started marking x's I assume... Isn't that what most of us do?