Battle for left will define election campaign this fall, say pollsters
With polls showing more than half of voters undecided and little room for the Conservatives to grow, the battle on the left is getting more intense as the NDP and Liberals fight to establish themselves as the “true” progressive agents of change before the official campaign begins. Past Conservative voters are the ones most likely […]
Parties remain committed to balanced budget as Canada may fall into deficit
Canada’s three leading political parties remain committed to a balanced federal budget even as the economic slowdown could put the government’s books into a deficit this year. The impacts of low oil prices and economic contraction are putting into jeopardy Canada’s projected $1.4-billion surplus for 2015-2016. Whether to balance the books or go further into […]
Dissatisfied with status quo, aboriginal candidates to push issues during campaign
Aboriginal candidates running in the federal election say they’re doing it out of dissatisfaction with the status quo and believe they have the potential to change the outcome, or at least the conversations during the campaign. Issues such as the poverty gap, missing and murdered aboriginal women, reconciliation over residential schools, the new anti-terror laws […]
Conservatives to stay course while trying to bring voters back into fold: strategists
As the Conservatives head into the last leg of their pre-election campaign, Tory strategists are expecting the party to stay the course on policy and spending announcements, keeping Prime Minister Stephen Harper front and centre while researching ways to frame the economic conversation and bring voters back into the fold. Conservative observers told The Hill […]
With election focus on urban Canada, influence of rural votes diminished
Shifting populations, voter demographics and recent changes to Canada’s electoral map have made urban centres the focus of the election campaign and diminished the potential influence of rural voters and ridings on the outcome this fall, experts say. Most rural ridings aren’t as volatile as hotly-contested urban battlegrounds, pollsters said, giving rural matters less prominence […]
Politics not immune to culture’s triumph of stupidity
My Conservative friend (yes, I have some) posted something noteworthy on Facebook. It was a picture of a sign bearing the words: STOP MAKING STUPID PEOPLE FAMOUS. In this week, the Kanye West week, it struck a chord. Most of the stuff one sees elsewhere on Facebook isn’t as noteworthy. There is the footage of […]
How positive ads build trust
One of the things that makes me a bit of an odd duck (yes, there are many things) is that I’m a big fan of so-called “negative” political ads. Lots of people hate them, but I love them. I love to write them, I love to produce them, I love to deploy them. Best of […]
Why is Harper still spending so much political capital pounding Trudeau?
The nice thing about being a political bystander is that you never suffer the consequences of a misplaced prediction. If I had a dollar for every pundit who predicted the death of the Liberal Party, I would be buried alive in cash. This past week, newshounds zeroed in on the possibility of Thomas Mulcair’s team […]
Political risks uncertain in expected TPP supply management concessions
Negotiations to reach a final Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement are entering the end stages and sources say the Canadian government will likely agree to supply management concessions in order to reach a deal, a potentially politically risky move right ahead of an election. A former senior adviser to the Conservative government familiar with the trade agenda […]
New voices, new approaches expected in 2015 campaign coverage
New media outlets on the Canadian political beat and resource-deprived traditional ones taking new approaches could make for election coverage this fall that’s less centered on the main trail and offers more variety for an increasingly splintered audience. Since Canadians last went to the polls in 2011, media organizations’ financial woes have largely continued, leading […]
