The long waiting game is over. Finally, the ruthless attack machine of the Conservative Party has roared to life and taken aim at Tom Mulcair. A little later than expected, to be sure, but with the deepest warchest in Canadian politics and a mean streak the size of Lake Superior, surely worth the wait.
Except it’s not. It’s just a website. And a really bad one at that.
The Conservative’s new attack site is not really even about Mulcair. It goes after members of his shadow cabinet. Like Nathan Cullen, who from what I read has committed the cardinal sin of not supporting the Conservatives’ reckless environmental deregulation.
Or Peggy Nash, who doesn’t condone the Conservatives’ blind corporate giveaways.
The horror.
I don’t mean to poke the dragon in the eye but c’mon guys. You used to be really good at this stuff. Where has the mojo gone?
Within weeks of being named Liberal Leader, both Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff faced a prime time barrage of negative TV ads.
Who could forget “Stephane Dion, Not a Leader,” or “Michael Ignatieff, Just Visiting”? I know from having sat in a fair number of focus groups that these monikers stuck for a long time. It’s fair to say in hindsight that Dion and Ignatieff never fully recovered.
I’m pretty sure Tom Mulcair will recover from this website. Probably in time for breakfast.
New Democrats have been preparing for a veritable Conservative onslaught for quite a while – well before Mulcair was elected leader.
The braintrust was determined that in their first year as Official Opposition, they wouldn’t let the Conservatives steamroll over them like they did with the Liberals – twice.
Every fundraising pitch to the membership has been on the theme of ensuring the NDP was ready for the oncoming Conservative attacks.
The NDP Federal Executive authorized a seven-figure television ad campaign, the largest non-election campaign in New Democrat history, to introduce Mulcair to Canadians before the Conservatives had a chance to do the job for them.
The NDP communications team (which, full disclosure, I was a part of) worked tirelessly to get the ads on the air within two weeks of Mulcair’s election to beat the attacks that never came.
Judging by the recent polls, the last of which had the Mulcair’s NDP sitting tidily in first place, the strategy seems to be having some success.
And the Conservative response? A website whose most interesting feature is that all of the men’s faces are orange and the women’s faces are green. Can’t tell you why.
The Conservatives have successfully deployed negative tv ads to gain the advantage against the last two Liberal Opposition Leaders. Why shift tacks facing an NDP opponent?
Ruling out a lack of money, or the sudden onset of a guilty conscience, there are likely a couple of factors at play.
The first is that Tom Mulcair is no Michael Ignatieff.
The case against someone who left the country for 34 years and came back only to run for prime minister is fundamentally easier to make than the case against a man who fought for Canada on the frontlines of the last Quebec referendum.
On the heels of Mulcair’s leadership victory, the Conservatives did try out some pretty lame attacks. But calling someone who joined the 4th party in Parliament an opportunist is a hard sell to make on the best of days.
These lines of attacks were clearly not ready for prime time, and were quickly shelved.
The second factor is that Harper’s Conservatives are worried that negative attacks might actually help the NDP unite the non-Conservative vote, something they are desperate to avoid.
Nothing would highlight that the NDP is now the main threat to the Conservatives like unleashing a negative barrage. Nothing would serve as a better rallying point for non-Conservatives. Certainly nothing would bring in more money to the NDP coffers.
The Harper Conservatives know this, and so while surely not happy to be looking up at their main opponent, they took a pass on defining their main opponent in favour of riding out the honeymoon. For now they seem resigned to snipe around the edges on amateurish websites and keep their powder dry for another day.
At least until someone pokes the dragon in the eye.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Drew Anderson
Except it’s not. It’s just a website. And a really bad one at that.
The Conservative’s new attack site is not really even about Mulcair. It goes after members of his shadow cabinet. Like Nathan Cullen, who from what I read has committed the cardinal sin of not supporting the Conservatives’ reckless environmental deregulation.
Or Peggy Nash, who doesn’t condone the Conservatives’ blind corporate giveaways.
The horror.
I don’t mean to poke the dragon in the eye but c’mon guys. You used to be really good at this stuff. Where has the mojo gone?
Within weeks of being named Liberal Leader, both Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff faced a prime time barrage of negative TV ads.
Who could forget “Stephane Dion, Not a Leader,” or “Michael Ignatieff, Just Visiting”? I know from having sat in a fair number of focus groups that these monikers stuck for a long time. It’s fair to say in hindsight that Dion and Ignatieff never fully recovered.
I’m pretty sure Tom Mulcair will recover from this website. Probably in time for breakfast.
New Democrats have been preparing for a veritable Conservative onslaught for quite a while – well before Mulcair was elected leader.
The braintrust was determined that in their first year as Official Opposition, they wouldn’t let the Conservatives steamroll over them like they did with the Liberals – twice.
Every fundraising pitch to the membership has been on the theme of ensuring the NDP was ready for the oncoming Conservative attacks.
The NDP Federal Executive authorized a seven-figure television ad campaign, the largest non-election campaign in New Democrat history, to introduce Mulcair to Canadians before the Conservatives had a chance to do the job for them.
The NDP communications team (which, full disclosure, I was a part of) worked tirelessly to get the ads on the air within two weeks of Mulcair’s election to beat the attacks that never came.
Judging by the recent polls, the last of which had the Mulcair’s NDP sitting tidily in first place, the strategy seems to be having some success.
And the Conservative response? A website whose most interesting feature is that all of the men’s faces are orange and the women’s faces are green. Can’t tell you why.
The Conservatives have successfully deployed negative tv ads to gain the advantage against the last two Liberal Opposition Leaders. Why shift tacks facing an NDP opponent?
Ruling out a lack of money, or the sudden onset of a guilty conscience, there are likely a couple of factors at play.
The first is that Tom Mulcair is no Michael Ignatieff.
The case against someone who left the country for 34 years and came back only to run for prime minister is fundamentally easier to make than the case against a man who fought for Canada on the frontlines of the last Quebec referendum.
On the heels of Mulcair’s leadership victory, the Conservatives did try out some pretty lame attacks. But calling someone who joined the 4th party in Parliament an opportunist is a hard sell to make on the best of days.
These lines of attacks were clearly not ready for prime time, and were quickly shelved.
The second factor is that Harper’s Conservatives are worried that negative attacks might actually help the NDP unite the non-Conservative vote, something they are desperate to avoid.
Nothing would highlight that the NDP is now the main threat to the Conservatives like unleashing a negative barrage. Nothing would serve as a better rallying point for non-Conservatives. Certainly nothing would bring in more money to the NDP coffers.
The Harper Conservatives know this, and so while surely not happy to be looking up at their main opponent, they took a pass on defining their main opponent in favour of riding out the honeymoon. For now they seem resigned to snipe around the edges on amateurish websites and keep their powder dry for another day.
At least until someone pokes the dragon in the eye.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Drew Anderson
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