Conservative Strategy: Turn Voters Away From The Polls

Great analysis on The Tyee regarding the Harper "government" strategy vis-a-vis the next election...

These lines in particular catch one's attention:

"There's two ways to win an election. One is to re-divide the pie as it stands. Another is to make the pie bigger or smaller," explained Pilon.

"Harper's success is partly due to the fact that his style of politicking has driven a lot of people away from politics. A lot of people don't like the mean, confrontational approach of the Conservative party. But instead of voting against it, they just give up on politics altogether," the University of Victoria professor continued.

'Oh, whatever...'

Indeed, voter turnout in 2008 was the lowest in Canadian history. Only 59 per cent of eligible Canadians cast a ballot. But while the Tories and the Bloc each lost about 170,000 votes between 2006 and 2008, the Liberals lost some 850,000 supporters.

"And of course that's what Harper and his bunch are hoping for," Pilon continued.

"They orchestrate a lot of photo-ops in which Harper looks Prime Ministerial. And they run their off-election smear campaign against the other leaders," Pilon said. "They're hoping that, come election day, people say, 'Oh, whatever, let's just put them in and be done with it.'"

Very interesting.

We certainly need to give voters a REASON to come to the polls - especially in Quebec, BC, and Ontario. When we do this, we really need to constantly repeat one central them - over, and over, and over, and over, and over... and ... over. Sure, Liberals are cerebral, thinking types who like to be more "nation-building" in our thoughts and deeds, and constantly harping/parroting a simple theme may not appease our need for political honesty and love of our nation... However, one needs to temper our honest efforts with the science of modern PR. Constant repetition of a theme - no matter how bland - does work, if it has the right amount of funding behind it.

Certainly sometimes one says, perhaps Canadians should get hoodwinked into voting for the bogus "stay the course" argument. We won't know the REAL Conservative/Reformatories until they lay further waste to Canada for 4 solid years - and, in Mr. Harper's words - leave Canada unrecognizable. Fortunately WE CARE for Canada, and we're not about to lie back and let this happen.

In the meantime, we get to watch the ugly, dirty, hateful, and angry side of politics that the Reform-a-Tories have brought to Ottawa and Canadians. Being a macho, angry, tough-guy is apparently the way to go these days (particularly for conservative-types worldwide). Don't take any crap from anyone. MY rights are more important than yours'. Sheesh. It's no wonder kids don't listen to teachers or parents. Why kids seem to be getting into worse stuff earlier... Time for society to lose the macho, me-first, tough-guy "idealism" - and soon. A change to a more mature and cerebral government would be a start.

VICTORY FUND