Elections Canada says it never aired 2008 election campaign ad cited by Conservatives

PARLIAMENT HILL—Elections Canada says a video ad the Conservative government cited as the type of advertising campaign it wants to prohibit the elections agency from using under the proposed new election law was never actually aired.

The ad—a 25-second video that contrasts urban pollution and emissions to an evergreen forest as it urges youth to “vote, shape your world”—was created for Elections Canada but cancelled in 2007 by the newly installed chief electoral officer that year, Marc Mayrand.
A government official provided The Hill Times a web link to the ad, uploaded to YouTube in October, 2008, during a federal election, as an example of the kind of content the government objects to in Elections Canada voter participation promotional campaigns.

Controversial legislation the government has introduced, Bill C-23, the Fair Elections Act, would prohibit all Elections Canada advertising campaigns and limit the agency’s communications with voters to the basics of how to vote, where and when.

The 2008 video that did not run begins with a sketched portrayal of a ballot being cast, then a moving sketch portrayal of a lively rock concert crowd and electronic music, as the images change to include a recycle symbol, with a backdrop of freeways, industry chimney emitters, and then a quiet forest. The brief clip ends with the printed words 'Vote. Shape your world.'

The ad and two other Elections Canada videos uploaded to YouTube in October 2008, also were cancelled and not aired, said John Enright, communications director at Elections Canada.

“This advertising campaign was developed for the 2008 federal general election,” Mr. Enright said in an email. “However, the campaign was cancelled by Mr. Mayrand when he became Chief Electoral Officer. The ads were never aired by  Elections Canada.”

Video ads that Elections Canada says were actually aired for the 2008 and 2011 elections begin with a ballot being stuffed, but last a few seconds and include only advice to “vote, shape your world,” along with a reminder of the election requirement to prove identity, along with contact information at Elections Canada.

Mr. Poilievre’s communications director, Gabrielle Renaud-Mattey, said she could not comment on the Elections Canada statement, and that the ad appears on YouTube.

“The ad … is available on YouTube under the title ‘Elections Canada,” said Ms. Renaud-Mattey. “I cannot speak to any other detail other than what is publicly available.”

The ads appear to have been uploaded by a YouTube channel with the handle Floho, which appears to have been set up by a creative firm called Fluorescent Hill in Montreal.

The ads, though originally planned for the 2008 federal election, would have been created in 2006.

The 2008 election was marked by Liberal campaign calling for, among other things, a “green shift” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a carbon tax, but the Conservative Party also promised to reduce carbon emissions and take other environmental measures, as did the NDP and the Green Party.

The government official declined to respond directly to a question about potential bias in the 2008 video that did not run http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny_X_C69xEA, when it was pointed out the imaging could attract youthful supporters of any party. Instead, the official reiterated the government’s position that political parties and candidates, not Elections Canada, would be responsible for increasing voter turnout under Bill C-23.

The official also repeated the government’s position that it wants to prohibit Elections Canada's voter participation ad campaigns and programs on a claim they have failed, and that the best way for the agency to increase turnout is through basic instructions about how to vote, when to vote and where, information Elections Canada consistently distributes through election campaign periods, with updates, if necessary, on voting day.

NDP MP Craig Scott (Toronto Danforth, Ont.) called the proposed prohibition on youth vote campaigns “consistent with the authoritarian record of this government” and accused the Conservatives of attempting to “dictate what Elections Canada communicates and what it can’t communicate in its efforts to interest Canadians in voting and democratic citizenship.”

“Young people are engaged in their social networks on issues that are important to them and to their futures,” Mr. Scott said in an emailed comment to The Hill Times. “One of the best ways to encourage them to bridge the gap between social-networked politics and voting is to encourage them to make a difference on the issues that matter to them. Maybe, just maybe, the Conservatives are actually concerned that Elections Canada will be too effective in engaging youth."

 Liberal MP Scott Simms (Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor, Nfld.) was also critical of the government’s opposition to an Elections Canada focus on the environment as a way to increase youth voting turnout—which in 2004 dipped to as low as one-third of eligible voters aged 21 to 24 actually casting ballots.

“I think it’s a crying shame,” said Mr. Simms. “I think what you have here is, you have a neutral body promoting the facts, inspiring people to get out there and vote.

“If it’s up to the parties, what are they going to do? They [the Conservatives] are going to put up Justin Trudeau in a negative ad, and that’s not very inspiring, to say the least. Every democracy really likes to promote the fact that you have to vote, and it means that much more if it’s coming from a neutral body, because you know it’s not going to be slanted in whichever way,” Mr. Simms said.

“Some people might say it [the 2008 Elections Canada ad] is slanted in a certain way, but every time we say those [Finance Department] economic action plan ads are slanted toward the Conservatives, they get offended,” said Mr. Simms.

Another Elections Canada youth participation campaign that was created for the 2008 election but not aired http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHVREwlySss is also a 25-second dramatized sketch for the 2008 election. It too begins with a ballot being stuffed into a ballot box, then shows oil pumps moving up and down, with what looks like dark blogs flying of the pump ends, the ballot boxes in the dark circles, followed by turning wind power turbines, which switch to an image of a doctor wearing a stethoscope that links to a Dow Jones index. The image transforms into children on a swing, finishing also with the statement “Vote. Change your world.”

Another Elections Canada ad created for the 2008 federal election campaign but not aired http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwKTNN0gdfk begins in the same graphic fashion with a sketch of a Red Cross ambulance that transforms into a humanitarian aid box, then a human chain to a ship, a ballot X mark appears, followed by a school of fish that transforms under water into a First Nation totem, followed by a farms scene with cows and then, “Vote. Shape your world.”

An Elections Canada ad encouraging youth to vote was aired http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61nPt7lsook in the campaign for the Jan. 23, 2006, federal election, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) won his first Conservative government, and features a crowded hip-hop club scene with a young man on the stage looking around at the crowd, but remaining silent. “Why not speak up, when everyone is listening? This Monday, Jan. 23, vote,” the script, says.

All of the ads contain the Elections Canada website address and the agency’s toll-free numbers.

Gabrielle Renaud-Mattey, the communications director to Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.), said she could not comment on the Elections Canada statement, and that the ad appears on YouTube.

"The ad … is available on YouTube under the title, Elections Canada,'" said Ms. Renaud-Mattey. "I cannot speak to any other detail other than what is publicly available."

“The minister is not arguing that Elections Canada’s advertising drives turnout down, rather that it fails to drive turnout up, because it does not address the practical obstacles that prevent many from voting,” said Ms. Renaud-Mattey.

Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Tim Naumetz