The Truth about the Poll funds.

[theloniusfleabag]

IMR,

Ya I don't understand the insanity of the constant re-election of the Liberals.

Fairly simple explanation, and it render's Mclean's quote below merely cheap rhetoric.

The best explanation I got was from a Macleans article a while back which described Canadians as willing partners in their own self-deception.

Canada is 'centrist', (more so than other countries) and the liberal party is the central one. Canada has a small population, relatively, especially for 'first world' countries, but is 'modern' and secular. There are only 3 major political parties(that could feasably have a PM), with the cons on the right 33%, the ndp on the left 33%, and the liberals managing to play the middle card up until now. It could be said, that from aside from the corruption, that they are still there. The middle 33% are the most important 'bloc' of voters, so the left or right 33% have to bend a little, as Harper is appearing to do, to enter that 'middle ground', and have a strong party and leader. Neither the Cons nor the NDP had these things for the last couple of elections.

This time around, however, the election is probably the most interesting one in since the Mulroney/Campbell sh*tkicking.

[The Honest Politician]

THP, a series of Liberal attack ads were leaked before Christmas. Fact.

They have not used them and because they were leaked may not.

I still don't see the problem with factual, critical ads.

What I don't like is the scare images the Liberals used in the last election. Guns point at the screen, young women in the hospital etc.

Here just so you can have that song stuck in you head like I have for the last three days. Hand in you pocket, hand in your pocket, hand in you pocket. The Liberal credit card.    Joke or mean spirited attack you tell me. But I do know the song will be stuck in your head. I can't get it out.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I never saw any liberal attack ads on the TV. I saw pieces of paper someone said came from the liberals, but no actual ads. Unlike the very negative ads the conservatives ARE running, which I see twice a day.

You seem to have a big problem with them, when the facts are aimed at Harper.

Scare images?!?!? How about a serious face coloured red with a negative voice over. You know like the one the conservatives put out about Martin.

Hands in my pocket. Hands in my pocket. Hands in my pocket.

[BubberMiley]

Yeah, and that election wasn't really interesting till it was over.

[shoop]

Yeah, well those ads ain't backfiring that is for sure.

As of now it looks like they are actually helping.

No need to fret though. The Liberals only chance at this point is *Harper is Satan*.

But they have been counter-acted with the "They'll go negative" ads.

When the CPC wins those ads will likely be seen as the deciding factor.

buh bye dithers...

I never saw any liberal attack ads on the TV. I saw pieces of paper someone said came from the liberals, but no actual ads. Unlike the very negative ads the conservatives ARE running, which I see twice a day.

You seem to have a big problem with them, when the facts are aimed at Harper.

Scare images?!?!? How about a serious face coloured red with a negative voice over. You know like the one the conservatives put out about Martin.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[I miss Reagan]

IMR,

Ya I don't understand the insanity of the constant re-election of the Liberals.

Fairly simple explanation, and it render's Mclean's quote below merely cheap rhetoric.

The best explanation I got was from a Macleans article a while back which described Canadians as willing partners in their own self-deception.

Canada is 'centrist', (more so than other countries) and the liberal party is the central one. Canada has a small population, relatively, especially for 'first world' countries, but is 'modern' and secular. There are only 3 major political parties(that could feasably have a PM), with the cons on the right 33%, the ndp on the left 33%, and the liberals managing to play the middle card up until now. It could be said, that from aside from the corruption, that they are still there. The middle 33% are the most important 'bloc' of voters, so the left or right 33% have to bend a little, as Harper is appearing to do, to enter that 'middle ground', and have a strong party and leader. Neither the Cons nor the NDP had these things for the last couple of elections.

This time around, however, the election is probably the most interesting one in since the Mulroney/Campbell sh*tkicking.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ya I've always felt that having the NDP around makes the Libs appear moderate. But what the article was refering to was all of the lies and promises the Liberals tend to make right around election time that everyone knows they won't keep yet they still vote them in. And would add to that the corruption and arrogance. I hate to say it but I'd take the NDP over the Libs, even though the NDP would sink the country.

[kimmy]

Hands in my pocket. Hands in my pocket. Hands in my pocket.

just to make sure everybody knows, the "Hands In My Pocket" ad is for a credit card company, not a Conservitive Attack ad!

-kimmy

{any similarities between banks that have their Hands In Your Pocket and the Liberal Party of Canada are purely unintentional.}

[tml12]

Hands in my pocket. Hands in my pocket. Hands in my pocket.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

just to make sure everybody knows, the "Hands In My Pocket" ad is for a credit card company, not a Conservitive Attack ad!

-kimmy

{any similarities between banks that have their Hands In Your Pocket and the Liberal Party of Canada are purely unintentional.}

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have seen that ad and I really thought it was a Conservative attack ad because it described their government perfectly.

[I miss Reagan]

Hands in my pocket. Hands in my pocket. Hands in my pocket.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

just to make sure everybody knows, the "Hands In My Pocket" ad is for a credit card company, not a Conservitive Attack ad!

-kimmy

{any similarities between banks that have their Hands In Your Pocket and the Liberal Party of Canada are purely unintentional.}

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Kimmy are you still Conservative? Last time I was around the Belinda incident really had you questioning things. Did you graduate and get away from the leftism at U of A?

[kimmy]

Kimmy are you still Conservative?  Last time I was around the Belinda incident really had you questioning things.  Did you graduate and get away from the leftism at U of A?

Well, I've never been (officially) a student at the UofA, and I've never really considered myself a Conservative, or even a conservative (although some people here seem to think I am just a little to the right of Ann Coulter, for some reason.) What I am most definitely is pro-change, and Harper is the only realistic option. I'm extremely pleased with how he's doing this time out, and cautiously optimistic (though still expecting the proverbial "other shoe" to drop. )

Kind of like the Conservatives "warning" Canadians of the vicious "attack ad" campaign that was coming from the liberals and then started their own negative ads?

I don't see a problem.

In the past several elections, the Liberals have reached for the "scary scary scary" ads. A Liberal strategist even boasted of the plan to the Globe'n'Mail just a month ago. The Conservatives would be foolish to not anticipate negative ads and try to shape how the public will view them.

CPC wants voters to view the Liberal attack ads (when or if they arrive) as the last refuge of a desperate party that has nothing positive to talk about. It's sound strategy. I think that the Liberals will become worried with the direction this campaign has headed so far, and become increasingly desperate to change the momentum. I think it's only a matter of time before they again reach for the "scary scary scary", and when that happens, the CPC will try to use those ads against them.

I'm not quite as sure that the Conservatives' own negative ads are sound strategy. However, it might not hurt. The problem the CPC had last election was that they were so negative that people got the impression they didn't have any ideas of their own to talk about. People thought all they had to offer was badmouthing the Liberals This time around they've kept the spotlight on their own platform, and a negative ad is probably not going to detract from the work they've done at articulating their positions.

-k

[The Honest Politician]

I don't see a problem.

That is the problem!

The conservatives can be as negative as they want and it is OK, but should a liberal even disagree with them, the Liberal is doing the "scary, scary, scary" BS.

What a double standard.

Can you imagine how easy it will be for them to justify everything, with that kind of mentality?

[I miss Reagan]

I don't see a problem.

That is the problem!

The conservatives can be as negative as they want and it is OK, but should a liberal even disagree with them, the Liberal is doing the "scary, scary, scary" BS.

What a double standard.

Can you imagine how easy it will be for them to justify everything, with that kind of mentality?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's insane, it's the other way around. Where have you been the past three elections?

[I miss Reagan]

Well, I've never been (officially) a student at the UofA, and I've never really considered myself a Conservative, or even a conservative (although some people here seem to think I am just a little to the right of Ann Coulter, for some reason.) What I am most definitely is pro-change, and Harper is the only realistic option. I'm extremely pleased with how he's doing this time out, and cautiously optimistic (though still expecting the proverbial "other shoe" to drop.  )

Kimmy you are truly an enigma.

I agree I too am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Perhaps the media will dig up something in the next couple weeks to help the Libs out.

[The Honest Politician]

I don't see a problem.

That is the problem!

The conservatives can be as negative as they want and it is OK, but should a liberal even disagree with them, the Liberal is doing the "scary, scary, scary" BS.

What a double standard.

Can you imagine how easy it will be for them to justify everything, with that kind of mentality?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's insane, it's the other way around. Where have you been the past three elections?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't support the liberals in the last election.

(I was working nights and slept through the one before that.

I can't remember if I voted in the one before that. )

The Liberal behaviour in the last election was just as bad.

[kimmy]

I don't see a problem.

That is the problem!

The conservatives can be as negative as they want and it is OK, but should a liberal even disagree with them, the Liberal is doing the "scary, scary, scary" BS.

What a double standard.

Can you imagine how easy it will be for them to justify everything, with that kind of mentality?

Isn't that the whole idea of an election campaign? Make yourself look good and make the other guy look bad?

If the Liberals' attack ads have become too easy to deflect, it's their own fault. They've gone to that well so often that probably just about everybody in Canada has figured it out by now. It has become a formulaic parody that has lost its former impact by being repeated so often.

Anyway, why would the Conservatives campaign according to Marquess of Queensbury rules, when their opponents never have? The past few elections it's been Conservatives whining about Liberal tactics. The fact of the matter is, they got out-strategized in those elections. This time, rather than whining, they are trying to beat the Liberals at their own game.

The only "double standard" here is that Liberals are not happy about the tables being turned against them.

-k

[wellandboy]

Regardless of the advertising the Liberals are still throwing out "hidden agenda" on the streets in my riding, Welland. The Liberals are masters of the whisper campaign but it's just not having the same impact it did in 2004.