Posted by Allan Woods
Campaigning politicians go to great lengths to connect with so-called ordinary Canadians in a federal election. But the logistics and planning, as well as the risks involved in putting a party leader in front of an unscreened, non-partisan public keep organizers awake at night.
Those ordinary Canadians could be indifferent. They could be hostile. They could jeopardize the all-important photo-opportunity and leave a campaign reeling. So parties parties try to make it appear as though voters are coming their way en masse. It is a sort of political peer pressure.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper, the one with the broadest base of support so far among the four parties, is keen so far on television advertisements that feature him and him alone.
The obvious message is that the Tories bring strong leadership in a time of uncertainty. In past campaigns, he's also used paid actors.
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's approach in his first election as leader is that he's not afraid of taking his pitch directly to average Canadians.
He's promised the type of unscripted, almost improvisational, campaign events that haven't been seen since Robert Stanfield's fumbled football.
Ignatieff's first round of ads, released Saturday, are aimed at the all-important "ethnic vote," but they fall short of that lofty bar.
An advisory to reporters following the campaign says: "The advertisements will feature ordinary Canadians speaking in a variety of languages -- including Urdu, Hindi, Cantonese and Mandarin."
One is in Punjabi. Here's the rundown and brief translation from my colleague Raveena Aulakh:
One man says that since the Conservative government came to power, “the country has been sinking.” Another man says Prime Minister Stephen Harper has put Canada into a debt while a third, a suave man in a goatee, complains that the Conservative government is giving tax cuts to big corporations and banks but nothing to ordinary people.
The advertisement wraps up with a voice saying: “I like Michael Ignatieff because he is smart and he listens to us.”
The other is in Portuguese. The Star's Christine Loureiro was the first of several colleagues in Toronto to provide a full transcript:
NARRATOR: Canadians have a lot to say about Stephen Harper.
MAN 1: The Conservatives promised responsibility but were caught in an illegal election financing scheme.
WOMAN 1: Stephen Harper is cutting taxes for big banks and big corporations and not giving us a thing.
NARRATOR: You have a choice. Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals will invest in things that are important to Canadian families.
WOMAN 1: I like Michael Ignatieff. He's intelligent and he listens to us.
NARRATOR: Vote Liberal in these elections.
There must be a remote chance that a bunch of "ordinary Canadians" from two different ethnic communities would have the word-for-word same take on the Liberal leader. Still, it seems likely that Ignatieff, too, is working from a script, and just as likely that the other rounds of ethnic ads will feature the same endorsement of an "intelligent" party leader.
(As an aside, I'd be surprised if the Liberals played up Ignatieff's book smarts, and by extension his long stretch away from Canada as a Harvard human rights professor in English or French ads, playing into the Conservative's charge that he's an elitist outsider who only came back to Canada to fulfill his ego in politics.)
I've asked party officials and they've yet to respond with a request for the names of these ordinary folks who appear in Saturday's videos. I'll let you know when I hear back from them.
But if history is any guide, there's a good chance the people who appear in these ads are declared Liberals, probably squirrelled away in campaign offices across the country, working to get their candidate elected.
Case in point: One night in Thunder Bay, where I was travelling with Harper during the 2006 election, I happened upon a batch of Liberal television ads that featured people speaking out in support of then-prime minister Paul Martin's re-election.
The only problem was that these average Canadians happened to be the brother of Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, the executive director of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party, and a British Columbia riding association president.
When I checked a few letters to the editor that were explicitly hostile to the Tories, or favourable to the Liberals I found letters from the former national director of Liberal youth wing and a former speech writer for Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan. None of them had declared their partisan leanings.
Harper told me the next day that it didn't surprise him to see Liberals posing as average Joes and Janes.
"I suspect for most of the Liberal campaign, if it isn't groups that are linked to the government, or linked to the party, I think they'll have a lot of trouble finding anybody to support some of their policies," he said.
To be fair, Harper couldn't say for certain that his party hadn't done the same thing, and once in power the Conservatives urged supporters on its website to make their views known to newspapers, call-in radio shows and any other forums that would publish or broadcast their views.
So remember this: Swaying public opinion is a dark and sometimes devious political art, despite the high calling of federal politics. I would urge skepticism and hope against cynicism as you, the voting public, are bombarded with the waves of ads and commentary coming your way over the next five weeks leading up to the May 2 election.
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