Last week, I published an article in The New York Sun about the federal election. You can read it here. It contains some pretty basic background stuff for the American audience, but also some observations about why the Conservatives lost which may be of interest to Canadian readers. Here's a list of four main reasons:
•Failure to sustain momentum: The Tories started out with a bang,but fizzled toward the end of the campaign. A series of verbal gaffs by Conservative candidates put the party leader, Mr. Harper, on the defensive. He was kept off his script for much of the last 10 days of campaigning, and in the end, undecided voters chose the Liberals.
•Fighting with kid gloves: The Conservatives never adequately responded to the litany of smears launched their way by the Liberals. Negative television ads misleadingly suggested the Conservatives would gut Canada’s Soviet-style healthcare system and ban abortion. The Conservatives had no hard-hitting attack ads of their own.
•Being defined before defining themselves: Through careful manipulation of friendly press outlets and full-blown distortions, the Liberals were able to paint a picture of the Conservatives as something to be feared. Worse, the Conservatives did not adequately and quickly respond to such attacks. That scared away crucial last-minute votes and allowed the Liberals to control the dialogue.
•Poor messaging: A week and a half before the vote, Harper publicly mused about the Conservatives winning a majority government. That seemed to turn off centrist voters who were only going to vote Conservative to punish the Liberals. Some accused the Tories of being arrogant. They seemed to lack discipline and a central, coordinated theme.
I conclude by saying that Stephen Harper must still be given credit for what he was able to accomplish.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:06 AM
