New Tory TV Ads

[August1991]

Four new ads have been prepared, and they've got an NDP feel to them, but the content is straight Conservative stuff.

Hand-held camera, Harper in shirtsleeves and most important, other Tories front and centre.

These ads won't do any harm, and they're probably better than the "Canadians demand better" ads (which I happened to like - even if nobody else seemed to).

Canadians know the name Stephen Harper now. How do you put him, with other Tories and with other Canadians?

This is Paul Wells' take:

Anyway, Harper's finally sort of figured it out. These ads are not going to turn around strong polling trends, but they're the best news the Conservatives have had in many weeks.

One thing I like about Harper's style is that it is non-glitzy, non-hyped and (dare I say it) non-American. As opposed to show-man Layton and very-important Martin, Harper plays straight. Duceppe has a similar trait but the difference may be that Duceppe is now comfortable with his punlic persona. Maybe Harper is still uncomfortable in the public spotlight.

[incidentally, the ads are only available in English.]

[August1991]

Added point: The Conservative Party has the money to pay for these ads, and more like them. The Liberal Party doesn't.

Then again, does the Liberal Party still have access to "subsidized" advertising services?

[shoop]

The ads are good.

Minor quibbles with a few things, editing is a little suspect for example.

But in general they are going to help they party.

Any clue who the strongest players, in Wells' view, that got left out are?

What is it with Wells' need to say "I told you so"? Is the guys ego really that fragile?

[mirror]

Wells is probably the most intelligent and independent political commentator we have in Canada, bar none!

[shoop]

The media critic the Globe got to review the ads gave them a thumbs up.

Media Critic Weighs In On Tory Ads

Overall "I think they've pulled it off," he said of the Tories' attempts to depict Mr. Harper as a leader who has ideas and who listens to his MPs.

[mirror]

I am so happy the Cons are finally getting off their proverbial butts and doing something. I really don't think it would be good for Canada to have another Liberal majority government but that is very close to what we are facing at the moment.

Too bad we couldn't somehow convince the Bloc to support PR and then we would never again be faced with a situation to have a majority national government with between only 35-40% of the votes from Canadians. That more than any other reason is creating the huge disatisfaction with Ottawa at the present time. Canadians by our very nature root for the underdog and we expect at least to have a FAIR voting system.

[shoop]

The ads got a pretty favourable story on the CTV news.

Didn't watch the CBC story, oh that's right there is no CBC news at the moment.

[Shakeyhands]

I've only seen the one based on HealthCare and it left me wondering what happened to the original Tory policy on Health Care? Could it be that Harper will say/do anything to get elected including saying that Healthcare needs fixing but not changing?

[mcqueen625]

Never seen the new ads, but I will vote Conservative anyway, because they are the only one's who represent my vision for Canada. The Liberal's represent more corruption, and the NDP represent a party that believes that Canadian's need more government instead of less. The fastest growing industry in Canada ia government bureaucracy, and that certainly wouldn't get better under the NDP, because they want government to be all things to all people. I on the other hand think that we need an elected government to set goals, and not have that being done by an appointed and unaccountable judiciary.

We need a Charter that is designed by the people, for the people, and voted on by the people, unlike the present one that was dreamed up by some people with their heads up their ass, and foisted on the Canadian public as if we really had any say in it's development or implementation. This flawed document has more to restrict freedoms for ordinary Canadian's than it has in giving most of us freedoms. It is a document that allows criminals to have more rights than victims of crime, cases in point Karla Holmolka, and Karl Toft.

[Guest eureka]

The fastest growing industry is NOT government bureaucracy. Ut was the fastest during the last Conservative administration but the Liberal (Chretien) administration cut the numbers quite dramatically.

Today, the number of government employees is still lower than it was under Mulroney. That in spite of substantial growth in the population and the need for a larger civil service to match it.

That seems to me to ne either a greatly improved efficiency or an undermanned bureaucracy.

[mirror]

WK's take on the ads:

August 24, 2005 - Here on the outskirts of the Bush Compound in Kennebunkport, the new Tory ads have not been uppermost in my mind, I confess. But I will say - and, in fact, I do say - that emphasizing "team" and "plan" is one of the top three things the Tories need to do. (And I'm not just saying that because I wrote a Post column to that effect, a few weeks back. I actually believe it.) So the ads work on that level.

The other two things they need to do? Here they are:

Start talking, and looking like, you love Canada, 24/7. Smile a lot.

Unleash a neg campaign (ideally emanating from "disinterested" third parties) on Paul Martin's dispirited, disorganized, disputatious Liberals - in week two of the writ - that is more Hellish than anything conjured up in Dante's Inferno. Beat them like a circus monkey. Maul them until their teeth bleed. Ignore the media carping about it.

You're welcome. Back to the beach.

[shoop]

I've only seen the one based on HealthCare and it left me wondering what happened to the original Tory policy on Health Care?  Could it be that Harper will say/do anything to get elected including saying that Healthcare needs fixing but not changing?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Conservatives had their policy convention in the spring and released their policy declaration on March 19th of this year.

Belittle him all you will, but this is the new Conservative party. They do support public health care in Canada.

[mirror]

I just can't believe it.

Every day I pick up the paper now there is another about problem for the Tories. This time it's about their TV ads. James Travers who is no Liberal hack tears a strip off the latest ads suggesting that they make Harper look dumb. And the beat go on.

152

Television ads show Harper's losing the plot

How smart is Stephen Harper? Surely he must be smarter than the party's current television ads suggest. Who but a scriptwriter could imagine any opposition leader asking a lieutenant, in this case Calgary's solid Jim Prentice, how long Liberals have been in power? (Should it again slip the Conservative cortex, the answer is 12 years.)

Harper and friends clearly hope that's too long for Canadians. Should the party have its way, voters will watch the commercials and conclude that a young, vigorous alternative is readying in the wings and make the ballot-booth adjustment.

As far as it goes, that's not bad strategy. Voters chilled by Harper and those unsettling anaconda eyes may warm to photogenic Rona Ambrose or be comforted by the calm projected by Diane Findley, another cabinet minister in waiting.

In effect, Conservatives are claiming that Harper is first among equals in a party that is more than the sum of its parts. Nothing wrong with that except that what's ailing the reconstituted Alliance and Tory caucus is more serious than the staff exodus or lacklustre enthusiasm for the leader.

Indirectly and unintentionally, the television ads confirm that the party doesn't have much to say and what it says isn't that interesting. Worse still, the nasty, demonizing yarn Liberals told about Conservatives in the last election remains more gripping even if it wafts lightly over truth.

With considerable help from leftover Reform dinosaurs, the hard-knuckle folks in Paul Martin's backroom continue to position Liberals as all that stands between Canada and the guns, Jesus and winner-take-everything dogma of U.S. Republicans. Instead of countering with a more compelling story about themselves and their rivals, Conservatives reinforce stereotypes.

[Guest eureka]

Making Harper look dumb is Truth in advertising.

[shoop]

I just can't believe it.

Every day I pick up the paper now there is another about problem for the Tories. This time it's about their TV ads. James Travers who is no Liberal hack tears a strip off the latest ads suggesting that they make Harper look dumb. And the beat go on.

152

Pick up a paper? You'd have to haul your rotund arse away from the computer screen to do that!

That Jim Travers spins the ads in the worst possible light is sad. But that's ok, Travers and those of his readers who take his word as gospel will never vote Conservative anyways.

Try reading somethin a little more towards the centre of the political spectrum.

[kimmy]

Pick up a paper? You'd have to haul your rotund arse away from the computer screen to do that! 

This sort of comment detracts from your message, and from peoples' willingness to give your opinion a fair hearing.

-k

[shoop]

This sort of comment detracts from your message, and from peoples' willingness to give your opinion a fair hearing.

-k

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I get your point, but the message in question was directed at a poster who has pointed repeated personal attacks at me and many other posters on this board.

When somebody is trolling and have repeatedly proven they won't give my opinions a fair hearing I won't afford them the same respect.