At The Senator THE PUNDITS PONDER
Six Myths About Election Campaigns
Rob Silver is a Partner at Crestview. He was recently named as one of 2010’s international political “rising stars” by Campaigns and Elections magazine. He was the only Canadian who received the honour last year.
Mark Spiro is a Principal at Crestview Public Affairs and a veteran of international and domestic political campaigns at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.
Chad Rogers is a public affairs consultant specializing in public opinion research, communications and strategy at Crestview Public Affairs. He is a reformed political staffer and campaign activist at home and abroad.
Our At the Senator political experts spent their most recent pondering session identifying six election campaign myths. With 2011 being the year of the election campaigns in Canada, these myths will help campaigns become more focused.
Rob Silver: Given that there are five or more provincial elections coming up this year and the federal election, let’s tackle the six biggest myths about elec- tion campaigns.
Myth #1 – Most Money Wins Chad Rogers: I think the number one myth with a candidate or a local cam- paign team is that money wins. Having the most money certainly hasn’t been a guarantee of victory for a lot of defeated incumbent governments. The money is not always on the side of where people are. It never hurts to have money but I don’t think…
Mark Spiro: As Napoleon said, “God is on the side of those with the heavy artillery”
CR: Empirical evidence: I think the Er- nie Eves (Ontario PC) campaign had more money in 2003, and I think the Paul Martin (Liberal Party of Canada) campaign probably had more money than their challengers in 2006.
RS: In a lot of ways, once the writ peri- od begins, the rules are the great equal- izer; spending advantages, fundraising
6 Campaigns & Elections | Canadian Edition
advantages, third party advantages, dis- appear to a large extent in the writ pe- riod. In Canada just because you have more money, it no way guarantees you a victory.
CR: Myth number one: Debunked; money doesn’t always win, but it doesn’t hurt to have some.
Myth #2 – Voters Aren’t Listening MS: In every election campaign, there is the belief and the perception that at a certain point, voters will wake up and start paying attention. The truth is, vot- ers are never actually asleep. This is why you’ve seen so many parties move into ‘the permanent campaign’. Voters’ im- pressions are not based on something that they observe over a period of thir- ty-six days or twenty-eight days during the writ period, but formed over days, weeks, months, years leading up to an election. This is why it’s hard to change voters’
perception during the writ and, as one former prime minister said, to discuss serious issues of public policy during an election. The truth is, they’re never asleep and there’s never a great moment
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62