[Newsbot]

<strong>Filibuster Cartoon</strong>
<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="http://www.filibustercartoons.com/archive.php?id=20070130" target="_blank">Slandering Stephane</a> (click to view)
<strong>Date: </strong> January 30, 2007

The Conservative Party of Canada has begun to air a series of advertisements blasting the leadership skills of new Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion. \"What a loser he is\" is basically the gist of the message. <br> <br>Since there is no election going on right now the Liberals are hurt by the ads. People call it an \"American-style\" hatchet job, but really, the Liberals were just as bad to Harper when they were in power.

[tritium]

Dion is an idiot.

Defending him every second post make him look even lamer.

[CanadianJeff]

Frankly that's just biast. The man hasn't even been a liberal leader for more then a few months.

Frankly I'm looking forward to the elections just to see what kind of platform he will lay out when pressed. That's going to be the real test of if I'm voting conservative again or feel that the liberals have changed enough to give them a vote.

personally I'm hoping for a Liberal minority at the end of the next election. Frankly the conservatives have done the country good in some ways and fudged up in others.

If it was possible I'd love to see it going back and forth for the next few decades. Both parties have good ideas and ways of putting them into play.

I can't imagine what kind of corruption would befall either party if there was no counterbalance to it and people on the other side of the floor who stand up and point out the other side of things.

[Psudo]

CanadianJeff wrote:

Frankly that's just biast.

Of course it's biased. That's what political parties are, organized advocacy groups.

[Jabrwock]

You'd think the Conservatives would have learned from those "soldiers... with guns... in our cities..." ads. That they don't work, they just annoy people.

So who decided that *this* time they will?

As to the matter of the ads' contents, I find it amusing that rather than release the ads during an election, or shortly following Dion's election to leader, they only tromp them out when he starts asking uncomfortable questions about their environmental policy. It's an attempt at distracting people, nothing more.

And before anyone goes "well the Liberals did blah blah for 13 years", I hardly see that as justification for the Cons doing nothing now. Are their policies that bad that they can't sell them on their own merit and have to tromp out the Liberals' performance as justification? Blaming the previous government only works when you have to make a very unpopular CHANGE (like drastically cutting the budget because the previous government left you a huge deficit). Using their bad performance as an excuse to maintain status quo? (as an example) Blaming their huge deficit as the reason you've KEPT the deficit and done nothing to reduce it doesn't work...

[CanadianJeff]

Psudo wrote:

CanadianJeff wrote:

Frankly that's just biast.

Of course it's biased. That's what political parties are, organized advocacy groups.

Advocacy is no excuse to call another group names without a valid argument to back it up. Frankly I'd call any party liberal, Green, Conservative or otherwise the same if they pull this stunt.

It should be illegal to run a mud slinging campain of any kind IMHO.

[fire_i]

I got to disagree with JJ here, yes the Liberals made similar ads before, but at least it was during election time. Attacking another party outside election time is lower than low.

And plus every party in their right mind knows attack ads barely work in Canada. To me, in this country, it seems like attack ads can only be used to allow the base of a party to have a good laugh and maybe draw some more of them to go vote. So when it's outside election time only the laugh remains.

Of course though I wouldn't be surprised if the Libs "replied" with other attack ads later on. Parties will never learn. And they're all pretty much as low as the others.

Ah! If only a party out there was different and actually outlawed this bullshit after coming to power... but that'll never happen. Well, maybe. In decades.

[OnTheIce]

Jabrwock wrote:

You'd think the Conservatives would have learned from those "soldiers... with guns... in our cities..." ads. That they don't work, they just annoy people.

So who decided that *this* time they will?

As to the matter of the ads' contents, I find it amusing that rather than release the ads during an election, or shortly following Dion's election to leader, they only tromp them out when he starts asking uncomfortable questions about their environmental policy. It's an attempt at distracting people, nothing more.

And before anyone goes "well the Liberals did blah blah for 13 years", I hardly see that as justification for the Cons doing nothing now. Are their policies that bad that they can't sell them on their own merit and have to tromp out the Liberals' performance as justification? Blaming the previous government only works when you have to make a very unpopular CHANGE (like drastically cutting the budget because the previous government left you a huge deficit). Using their bad performance as an excuse to maintain status quo? (as an example) Blaming their huge deficit as the reason you've KEPT the deficit and done nothing to reduce it doesn't work...

Conservatives know how easy it is to manipulate Canadians with just a little commercial or a sound bite, hence the commercials.

It's far from distracting, it's getting the jump ahead of Dion. Looking back at the history of Dion and the Liberals, you know they're going to spout off 1 line, most likely inaccurate and it'll sway Canadians instantly.

This way, the Conservative knock down any credibility Dion has so when Canadians hear him speak, they already have an image of him as a failed environment minister who isn't fit to lead Canada.

This is something the Liberals were always very good at. Discrediting their opponent before they have a chance to speak. It makes for great politics.

[fire_i]

One-liners, ads or all similar things you're talking of work for a moment but have no long-term impact, although they do work to swing the polls for a moment because there's always a certain number of often poorly informed, extremely indecisive voters.

I don't think it can really work outside election time, people simply have too much time to forget and politicians have too much time to make sure people did forget.

[OnTheIce]

fire_i wrote:

One-liners, ads or all similar things you're talking of work for a moment but have no long-term impact, although they do work to swing the polls for a moment because there's always a certain number of often poorly informed, extremely indecisive voters.

I don't think it can really work outside election time, people simply have too much time to forget and politicians have too much time to make sure people did forget.

As much as I hate to admit it, Canadian voters are generally stupid. The majority of people don't have a clue about poltics, policy or parties in general. They vote based on a very small amount of information.


Having said that, to embed these little tid bits of information into the brain of Canadians will have an effect on Dion. I've heard it already in my travels. I overheard two people commenting on Dion while standing at the newstand and they were talking directly about the commercial. I'd bet they don't have a clue about Dion and his past, but they've formed an opinion of him based on a 20 second commercial.

This same tactic worked for the Liberals when they painted Harper as "Scary".

They maybe short, they maybe "cheesy" to some, but sadly, that's what speaks to Canadians.

[JJ]

OnTheIce wrote:

This is something the Liberals were always very good at. Discrediting their opponent before they have a chance to speak. It makes for great politics.

I think this is a very important insight. One of the key reasons the CPC won the last election was because they were able to successfully "manage" the media and their message, largely by beating the Liberals to the punch. They were out there early and often, making press releases and statements very early in the campaign, and it forced the Liberals to be on the defense, rather than the offense. They had to react to what the Conservatives did, rather than dominate and define the terms of the debate on their own, as they are used to. I think it really may be a winning stragegy for Harper.

[Psudo]

CanadianJeff wrote:

Psudo wrote:

CanadianJeff wrote:

Frankly that's just biast.

Of course it's biased. That's what political parties are, organized advocacy groups.

Advocacy is no excuse to call another group names without a valid argument to back it up. Frankly I'd call any party liberal, Green, Conservative or otherwise the same if they pull this stunt.

It should be illegal to run a mud slinging campain of any kind IMHO. :P

Silly me. When you said "biast", I assumed you meant "arguing or acting based on preconceived conclusions", making it synonymous with advocacy. Instead, it seems meant "petty name calling". Strange, I didn't know that was one of the definitions of biased. Please excuse me.

[fire_i]

OnTheIce wrote:

As much as I hate to admit it, Canadian voters are generally stupid. The majority of people don't have a clue about poltics, policy or parties in general. They vote based on a very small amount of information.


Having said that, to embed these little tid bits of information into the brain of Canadians will have an effect on Dion. I've heard it already in my travels. I overheard two people commenting on Dion while standing at the newstand and they were talking directly about the commercial. I'd bet they don't have a clue about Dion and his past, but they've formed an opinion of him based on a 20 second commercial.

This same tactic worked for the Liberals when they painted Harper as "Scary".

They maybe short, they maybe "cheesy" to some, but sadly, that's what speaks to Canadians.

That is true. Hence why these ads work during voting time.

Maybe one day everyone will understand the importance of the government and actually become informed... ah, dreams on an utopia.

[CanadianJeff]

"Dion is an idiot."

That sir is an insult formed out of a biast. It has no real facts or bearing put beside it that calls into question Mr. Dion's Intelligence.

Next time you want clarity on a post I've made feel free to PM me.

[Harminder]

Me i find the ad's funny, of coure it's not going to change how i vote as i don't live in Canada, I do remeber one thing aboyt the 2005 u.k election, one reporter noted that Conservative and labour were attacking and counting attacking with support rising much more than the Librarl democrate could be because both labour and conservetive were provinding reporters a nice breakfeast while the Librarls did'nt after a all breakfeast is an important part of the day and a fed reporter is a happy one maybe this can be a new tactic in canada.
P.S JJ what do you think of the article i found on tony blair.