Culture

NPA to go negative in advance of Vancouver Election

by mtippett | November 13, 2008 at 05:52 pm

107 views | 6 Recommendations | 6 comments

Rumors of a smear campaign against Gregor Robertson are starting to bubble up. Recently I was also told that the NPA has launched a series of negative, Republican-style attack ads against Vision. If the Vision team has any money left in the bank they will no doubt fight back with their own ads. This really is starting to look more and more like the US Presidential race.

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eastvanray

at 18:16 on November 13th, 2008

Go negative or go home. People say they do not like negative ads but all research that I have read over the years proves that they work - and work well. You will see attack ads in politics until voters stop being influenced by them.

mtippett

at 20:08 on November 13th, 2008

We'll have to see if it works or if people see through it this time Ray. In the US it didn't work against Obama in the final desperate hours of the McCain campaign so there is some evidence to suggest that the Rovian style politics is on the wane.

I'm led to believe that these particular ads will be targeting new Canadians (i.e. from the US and elsewhere). Ironically this could backfire given the huge population of voters in Vancouver who fit that category.

eastvanray

at 11:28 on November 14th, 2008

Negative ads wont save you from losing a one sided campaign and they require that the attacks are credible and, ultimately, true but in a tight race they suppress your opponents voter turnout. I haven't seen any of these ads yet but will be interested to see what their message will be. I can see attacking Robertson on his irresponsible suggestion that Vancouver negotiate in public. That shows real inexperience and they could play on that.

mtippett

at 13:53 on November 14th, 2008

My guess is that they won't go after Vision for that although the attacks on Louie's innocence are ongoing.

I think the public opinion on the secrecy of this negotiation is split. While there are arguments on either side as to whether leaking the agreement was appropriate there are lots of people who feel that a deal of this size should have had more public consultation.

mtippett

at 14:19 on November 14th, 2008

Bill Tieleman posts a round up of what he's seen:

In a strange political version of the popular "Where's Waldo?" cartoons, Non-Partisan Association candidates have overwhelming run personal campaign ads that fail to even mention their own mayoral nominee - Peter Ladner.

Top prize for dissing the leader goes to Korina Houghton - who bought a full page ad in today's 24 hours newspaper but couldn't find room for a single mention of Ladner, nor in her Province ad.
New NPA council candidate Dajit Sidhu also has an ad in 24 hours with lots on his background and ideas - but no idea who the NPA mayoral candidate is. Nor do his radio ads mention Ladner.
Then there's NPA councilor Suzanne Anton - running lots of ads on CKNW radio AM 980 but none mention Ladner.
Elizabeth Ball is another NPA councilor whose Vancouver Courier ads have no reference to Ladner.
NPA councilor Kim Capri has no reference to Ladner on the home page of her own website.
NPA school board nominee Heather Holden and NPA trustee Ken Denike don't mention Ladner in their ads either.