Author: Stephen Taylor

Bloc Québecois co-founder and current Liberal Québec lieutenant Jean Lapierre called a press conference today to tell Quebeckers that a vote for the Bloc would be an indirect vote for Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party of Canada.

I would guess that the people of Québec are voting for the Bloc because they are voting against the Liberals. Of course Quebeckers don’t expect the Bloc to form the next government. So by voting against the Liberals, Quebeckers are trying to prevent the Liberals from forming the next government.

Perhaps the reason why Quebeckers don’t want to vote Conservative (or NDP) is because they don’t want to split the anti-Liberal vote.

The election strategy of the Conservative Party of Canada and that of Stephen Harper is becoming more and more evident to the electorate and to his competition. During the first week of the campaign, Stephen Harper laid low; he traveled from city to city giving his stump speech (some of the same, some modified for the locale). Indeed, the Conservative Party played it safe and let Paul Martin dance the awkward dance. While Martin mumbled about without direction, something unexpected happened: Jack Layton self-destructed, with his blame of Paul Martin for homeless deaths and his baffling quest to repeal the Clarity Act. If a minority government does indeed occur, Andrew Coyne points out that the NDP may handicap itself below an adequate number of seats to hold the balance of power.

During the first week, Stephen Harper was able to stay newsworthy. While not an exciting kickoff to the campaign, the media had to tell the story of who may replace Paul Martin. And there was Harper, the calm and cool PM in waiting.

This week, however, is policy week. Yesterday and today, Stephen Harper has released two main planks of the Conservative platform for discussion and analysis by the media and the public. The entire platform is due out this week. The Conservative Party of Canada is using each announcement as a newsworthy event; Peter Mansbridge, Lloyd Robertson et al. will likely lead with the Conservative Party justice platform tonight as they did with the Defense platform last night.

What about Paul Martin? Well, I heard he visited some synchrotron (3 results in Google News: 2 news, 1 from the Liberal Party) in Saskatchewan yesterday and gave reporters insight into the first step of the Liberal’s twelve step election strategy: denial. “We will form a majority government” he uttered as a reporter asked him about the decline in popularity of his party. Martin also tried to recruit some Chrétienites, the very group he purged, to help his find his lost base of support.

At first, I was a little frustrated that the platform of the Conservative Party of Canada had not been released in its entirety. The Bloc was the first to release its full platform (over 150 pages), then the NDP (about 65 pages). The Conservative parties had released their platforms early before, why the delay now?

Now it is clear.

As each platform announcement gives the Stephen Harper top spot in the news, all that we hear from Paul Martin is that he is fumbling around trying to find his direction.

I was forwarded this email by a friend of mine who is on the mailing list of the Jack Layton Party (my sarcastic comments are in bold):

Dear Canadian hockey fan, (hey, that’s me!)

The final round has begun — and Canadians from coast to coast have been captivated by the story of an underdog (parallel to be drawn soon) team that has exceeded early expectations, faced off against tough opponents, and is now poised for a success that few had foreseen. (where is this going?)

Oh, and the Calgary Flames are in the final round of the Stanley Cup playoffs (oh, he was talking about the NDP! Genius!)

I want to tell you how excited we are to have this election finally underway. With Jack Layton (this guy has idol status in his party, but is generally unknown nationally) as our team captain (groan), the NDP is off to a great start! Our message of new ideas and positive energy (blaming Paul Martin for killing homeless people may not qualify as “positive energy”) is scoring big points (I like hockey!) with the Canadian public. Now we urgently need your support so we can continue to turn up the heat. (Flames are hot… with me so far? Cause here comes the empty netter)

Click here to make an online donation to support the NDP election campaign.

On Saturday night we’re going to hit the airwaves in a big way (wow!), when we launch our new TV ad on the CBC broadcast of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs from Calgary. We’re going to reach the biggest Canadian audience ever with our vision of new hope and a Canada where no one gets left behind.

It’s expensive, yes, (it would get even more expensive with Jack as PM) but like the Calgary Flames, we’re giving everything we’ve got (I’m getting teary-eyed). And we have to. The other parties are pouring million of dollars ([sic]) into their own radio and TV campaigns.

I hope you’re ready to go the distance with us, and that you’ll give us the support we need to keep our positive momentum going. Please click here to make a secure online donation today (if they win the election, this won’t be the last time they ask you to open your wallets).

Sincerely,

Bruce Cox

Campaign Director

Canada’s NDP

p.s. Don’t forget to watch for our TV ad on Saturday night’s game (wasn’t this the main point of this very short letter?). And don’t forget that we need your support to continue getting our message to as many Canadians as possible.

I sometimes don’t know if the NDP approaches their communications in a “fun” way but whenever I read any release by the NDP to the electorate, I feel as though Jack Layton thinks that, as a voter, I’m dumb. The Jack Layton Party uses catchphrases so we can all better understand complicated issues like Adscam and the economy.