Tories to unveil new ad campaign

[GAP]

Tories to unveil new ad campaign
BRIAN LAGHI  Globe and Mail Update
Article Link

OTTAWA — The federal Tories have produced a new series of ads expected to be unveiled Sunday and aimed at boosting their image in the wake of the selection of Stephane Dion as new Liberal leader.

Sources have told The Globe and Mail that MP Jason Kenney will brief the media on the content of the ads Sunday. They are expected to include television commercials, sources said.

The party has been planning an ad campaign since Mr. Dion was elected in early December.

Reports indicate that the ads, which will air during prime time and the Super Bowl, will mock Mr. Dion's leadership abilities and his environmental record.
More on link

 

[warspite]

Well it looks like the conservatives are getting a head start in preparing for the election...
Heads up everybody cause it's now attack ad seaseon...
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/28/ads-dion.html

Tories launch attack ads aimed at Dion
Last Updated: Sunday, January 28, 2007 | 6:20 PM ET
CBC News
The Conservatives unveiled three new television ads Sunday attacking Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, a day before members of Parliament return to the House of Commons.

The English-language ads, which will be followed by a second series of French ads, assert that Dion is a weak leader who would take the country back to the past.

They also criticize Dion's record as environment minister, charging that greenhouse gas emissions went up and air quality went down under his watch between 2004 and 2006.

In response to the ads, Dion told CBC News, "[Harper] wants to spend all this money to try to attack me in a very negative way, and it'll backfire."

"Canadians will not be impressed by that."

Dion also criticized Harper's environmental record, saying that several months ago the prime minister said that greenhouse gas emissions didn't exist.

The ads use footage from last fall's Liberal leadership debates, including clips of Michael Ignatieff, now Dion's deputy leader, and Ken Dryden admitting that the Liberals failed to meet the Kyoto targets for emission reductions.

One ad includes a clip of Dion plaintively responding to attacks on his environmental record, telling Ignatieff he doesn't know how hard it is to set priorities.

B.C. Conservative MP James Moore said, "We think that Stéphane Dion has been getting a little bit of a free ride. We're going to hold him accountable for the things he didn't do as environment minister."

The Conservatives, who have secured a prized spot for the ads during next weekend's Canadian broadcast of the Super Bowl, refused to say how much the party is spending on the election-style campaign.

 

[career_radio-checker]

Not a very good strategy in politics. Attack! Attack! Attack! may work for the military, but as the last election proved Canadians hate bullies more than they hate corruption. Remember that stupid Globe and Mail poll placing politicians at 7% trustworthiness? that was probably the most accurate rating that poll got. So, if politicians can't be trusted then corruption is expected amongst politicians and therefore not really a major factor in deciding who gets in power (otherwise the Conservatives would have a majority right now) But one thing the population of this warm, fuzzy, and peaceful country absolutely hate is bullies. It doesn't matter how incompetent a political party leader maybe, a very large portion of Canadians would vote for the underdog out of sympathy.

 

[hotelquebec9er]

Not to mention how this backfired when they made fun of Cretien's speaking habits, or on the liberals in the last campaign...  Sometimes I wonder how political strategists forget historical trending...

 

[career_radio-checker]

Not to mention how this backfired when they made fun of Cretien's speaking habits, or on the liberals in the last campaign...  Sometimes I wonder how political strategists forget historical trending...

They are politicians not historians. As a poli-sci student myself I can vouch for them; I can't even remember what I had for supper but it sure is doing a number on my stomach.  :-\

 

[Cdn Blackshirt]

All I have to say is that whomever is on Harper's communications team should be fired.

They are absolutely awful.  As in "gag me with a spoon" awful....


Matthew.  :threat:

 

[hotelquebec9er]

I'd love to see a campaign add that would focus on *what* a party intended to do, with substance enough that it wasn't just a "hopes and dreams" commercial.

 

[geo]

Well.... how low can you go?
I guess the Conservative party certainly woun't stand on the high ground this time around.

Hmm..... Rona Ambrose - she had nice hair, didn't she?

 

[a_majoor]

I'd love to see a campaign add that would focus on *what* a party intended to do, with substance enough that it wasn't just a "hopes and dreams" commercial.

Same here. Mr Dion's inadequacies can be addressed during a campaign (why not just ask him about ADSCAM, spending on the Kyoto accord, why the "Clarity Act" is a copy of Steven Harper's private member bill tabled four years earlier, etc.) during the leadership debate?

The CPC slogan "Getting things done for Canadians" is a good launch platform, especially since they have the record to prove it. Stick to the high ground.

 

[hotelquebec9er]

It may have been a Harper private mbrs bill, but weren't the Libs waiting on the Supreme Court's reference decision?

anyways, I agree.  The catcalls and crap that I see in QP is disgusting, and this is just an extension of that foul, mean, unintelligent political positioning.

 

[geo]

The CPC slogan "Getting things done for Canadians" is a good launch platform, especially since they have the record to prove it. Stick to the high ground..

WRT the environment... they still haven't done anything yet... lotta papers, lotta intentions, like the liberals.... lotta promisses..... wait & see

 

[Brad Sallows]

If the CPC truly intends to use negative-style ads, it receives a +1 in the "Stupid" column.  If they want to get a message out, they should concentrate on positives (achievements).  People who are on the thin edge of admitting the government isn't as scary as they thought are just going to be tipped back over to "opposed".

 

[a_majoor]

The CPC slogan "Getting things done for Canadians" is a good launch platform, especially since they have the record to prove it. Stick to the high ground..

WRT the environment... they still haven't done anything yet... lotta papers, lotta intentions, like the liberals.... lotta promisses..... wait & see

No one is perfect, but I think the CPC is getting sucked into a mugs game with the "environment". Nothing you ever say or do is going to be good enough for the tree huggers (especially once you settle on realistic solutions based on cost/benefit analysis), so I would walk away from trying to appease them and stick to the five platform planks of the last election. On that front the CPC seems to be 4/5 (wait times for medical procedures being the major failure, although since that is a provincial responsibility, they should never have gone there either).

You probably won't like my plan for the environment either (remove ALL subsidies and price supports for energy and energy products), but I guarantee that you will see a massive change in consumer behavior in very short order, and the adoption of a vast array of energy conservation and alternative energy solutions.

I think the real point is the CPC is different, and should behave differently. Canadians are pretty cynical and not engaged the way "we" are (how much factual debate comes out of the MSM, for example?), so attack ads will only reflect badly on the CPC.

 

[observor 69]

You probably won't like my plan for the environment either (remove ALL subsidies and price supports for energy and energy products), but I guarantee that you will see a massive change in consumer behavior in very short order, and the adoption of a vast array of energy conservation and alternative energy solutions.
I

+1
 

 

[youravatar]

Attack ads are necessary as a first wave because if you put doubt about the guy your up against and then you stick your "tried and true" record out there you get a overall positive effect in your favor.

My 2 cents.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

So far, newspaper polls (yeah I know  ) across the country have been suprisingly favourable. Not overwhelmingly for, or against, but a pretty even split.

 

[Brad Sallows]

As long as all that is being put out consists of statements by Liberals about their own people and policies and "achievements", and seeing as there is not actually an election right now, the ad campaign may be safe enough to run.

 

[GO!!!]

I think the biggest problem for the good guys is that the opposition will refer to them (and the press will parrot it) as "american style attack ads".

Pointing to Dion's own, and his party's miserable failings on the environment portfolio should have been sufficient.

The facts speak for themselves, the PCs did not need to attack.

 

[GAP]

Attack ad or not, whether it hurts the CPC or not, the one ad I have seen has, in the Liberals' own words, painted Dion for the non-leader he is. I may be a conservative in my voting, but Dion is nowhere near the calibre of Chretian, let alone Trudeau....he's a temp fill, along the lines of Turner and Campbell.

 

[Osotogari]

I personally think these ads are an appropriate response to the free ride that the national media has been given Dion since his ascendancy to the head of his party.  CBC and CTV seem to be doing some sort of journalistic moving/covering kissing of Dion's ass.  Something is needed to shake people out east loose from feeling that they owe the libs something.  A huge case in point is that the fossil award that Rona Ambrose was given at the environmental conference in Nairobi was given front page coverage across the board in Canada while the coverage for when Dion got the same award last time was miniscule if not altogether non-existent.   

I especially like the part where Dion is shown complaining to Ignatief about the fairness of questioning his record as well as the difficulties in establishing priorities.  Must have learned that from Martin.  Also, his reinstatement of Cote who was a big Lib bagman during adscam should tell anyone all they need to know about the contempt they hold the voting public as well as the entitlement they feel they have to the reigns of power.  The longer the libs are out of power the better for the country.  Canada can do better than their corruption and arrogance.