Reviewing the (new) Conservative TV spots

The Conservatives have come out with two new ads; one I  like a lot, the other less so.

Let's start with the ad I think works very well:



This ad works because, unlike other Tory attack ads, it sticks to issues and doesn't go after Michael Ignatieff's character.

Plus, rather than taking on a bunch of issues it focuses on one main idea: Ignatieff wants to raise taxes. It then reinforces the message with a few strong examples in a visually interesting way.

It also helps advance the Tory narrative about the Liberals wanting to force an unwanted election.

This is the kind of ad that will both motivate the Conservative base and drive down the Liberal numbers with casual voters.

Score: 8 out of 10.

The next ad is more positive and less effective.




You get the feeling the Tories just put this together to offset criticism about all their negative stuff.

Anyway, this ad is pure saccharine hokiness. Kind of stuff that makes jaded, cynical observers (aka me) want to puke.

That's not to say hokey can't work in politics, it certainly can work, but  not in this particular ad.

The biggest problem with the spot is its narrator: Prime Minister Harper.

After all, let's face it, Harper is a competent leader and a smart tactician, but a great communicator, he aint.

Harper just can't connect with voters on an emotional level; he doesn't inspire people. In short, he is no Ronald Regan.

So why play to your weakness? Why have Harper narrate the ad? Why not go with a professional announcer?

Plus as the narrator Harper can't brag about himself! This makes the ad somewhat flat.

And finally, there is just too much feel good pontificating before you get to the actual gist of the ad: Things are OK don't mess things up.

The message, in short, gets lost in the all the feel-good flag waving.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Reviewing the NDP TV spot

This is the NDP's new TV spot; it's not all that imaginative, but it does serve the party's strategic needs.



Content-wise the ad takes a populist rather than socialist stance. In fact, with its attack on "insiders" and "lobbyists", it starts off sounding almost like an American Tea Party ad!

This makes sense given I believe the NDP's communications strategy will be to achieve three aims:

1.To calm jitters about the party's socialist agenda by  playing up the idea that the NDP is really about standing up for "little guy".

2. To remind voters that Jack Layton is the NDP leader

3. To show Canadians the NDP wants to get its message out in a positive manner.

This is last point is the most important because the next election should erupt into a no-holds-barred blood feud between the Liberals and Conservatives, with each side whacking the other with increasingly negative spots.

This leaves room for the NDP to position themselves as the good guys, the guys who are staying clean and who are talking about issues.

In short, the New Democrat strategy will be to say: "If you are sick of all the negative stuff, come to us we are the positive alternative."

Not a bad idea. And this ad helps frame that strategic narrative.

My only quibble is the ad lacks a visual reinforcement of the message. It should, for instance, have the key points appear as words on the screen. Also would have been nice to see Layton move around a bit, give the spot some motion.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Media update: Election and Oda

A couple of media notes.

First, I am quoted in this Ottawa Hill Times article on the prospects of a federal election this spring.

Plus, today the Winnipeg Free Press published a letter to the editor I wrote on the Kairos affair in response to this column by Frances Russell:

Dear Sir/Madam:

Frances Russell is correct to castigate the federal government for its clumsy handling of the Kairos affair (Religion underlies battle over Oda, Feb. 23).

However, she is wrong to suggest only evangelical Christians oppose funding advocacy groups.

In fact, Canadians of all denominations would likely oppose using tax dollars to subsidize such groups, especially at a time when the country faces a massive deficit.

This is not about religion, it's about common sense. Advocacy groups should not grind their axes with our taxes.

Standing with Scott

There's a battle going on in Wisconsin to see who runs the state, the people or big union bosses.

Media Alert

I am scheduled to be a guest today at 1:45 PM ET on the Michael Harris Show, (CFRA Ottawa) to discuss federal political issues.

Bragging about spending

In what seems an awful lot like a pre-election blitz, Conservative Cabinet Ministers and MPs are fanning out across the country to brag about all the government spending entailed in the "Economic Action Plan".

That's the plan remember that burdened Canada with a massively huge deficit.

And while they are at it, Tory MPs will also announce about $261 million in new spending initiatives.

Nothing new about this, of course.

Politicians have been bribing voters with their own money since the days of Ancient Rome. (Vote for Quintus and get a new Colosseum.)

However, let's be clear exactly what the Tories are crowing about.

All their spending will mean:

* Bigger deficits, more national debt.

* Future taxes on our children

* More public investment at the expense of private investment

* Less money for Canadians to spend as they see fit

*  Bigger government

* A resurrection of Keynesian mythology

When you look at it that way, maybe instead of bragging, the Conservatives should be apologizing.

The Best US President

Yesterday was President's Day in the U.S., so here a day late, is a column I wrote a few years ago on the man I consider the best president of all time.

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Who was the best U.S. president of all time?

Ask that question and you might get answers like George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or maybe Thomas Jefferson.

But Lawrence Reed, who heads up an American think tank known as the Foundation for Economic Education, would have a different answer.

I recently heard Reed deliver a speech at a conference in Michigan where he made the case that America’s best all time president was actually Grover Cleveland.

My first reaction on hearing that was, Grover who?

And then my American history class from high school kicked in. Grover Cleveland, I recalled, is the answer to a trivia question: he is the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms.

He served as America’s president from 1885–1889 and then again from1893–1897. But that’s not what Reed liked about Cleveland. It turns out Cleveland was one of America’s most honest presidents and also one of its most principled believers in economic freedom.

His honesty, in fact, was well known to Cleveland’s contemporaries.

An editorial in the New York World which endorsed Cleveland for the presidency in 1884, gave four reasons to support him: “1. He’s an honest man. 2. He’s an honest man. 3. He’s an honest man. 4. He’s an honest man.”

And it was this honesty which formed the foundation for his political convictions. As Reed noted, Cleveland felt it dishonest for “the government to spend more than it had and send its bills to future generations.

So he always worked to produce a balanced budget. He even felt it was dishonest for government to run a large surplus — ‘ruthless extortion,’ he called it — because it was a sign that government had taken more from the people than it needed.

 And it was dishonest, he felt, for government to think it could spend money better than the people who first earned it.

That’s why Cleveland was also opposed to high tariffs. In his view it was dishonest for the government to promote an economic policy that harmed consumers and which bestowed special privileges to politically-connected business leaders.

And so determined was Cleveland to control government spending that he vetoed twice as many bills as all previous 21 presidents combined. Sometimes that forced him to make tough decisions. In 1887, for instance, he vetoed a bill to provide $10,000 in relief to Texas farmers whose crops had been wiped out by drought.

To justify this decision Cleveland declared, “I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution; and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadily resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people." 

Grover believed private charities, not government, should support the people. And, indeed, in this case that’s what happened. A newspaper appealed to its readers and raised the $10,000 to help the Texas farmers buy new seed. Of course, being honest and principled and keeping government small doesn’t make for exciting history, which is perhaps why Cleveland is largely forgotten today. And that’s too bad.

Certainly America, and for that matter Canada, could use a politician like Cleveland who put principle and conviction ahead of political gain.

Shameless, self-promoting media whoring alert

I am scheduled to appear on CFAX radio, this afternoon at 12:10 ET to discuss Bev Oda and the latest poll numbers.

Government spending in nots

The Fraser Institute calculates that in order to balance the budget, the federal government needs to slash spending by about $16 billion.

A big task.

In fact, cutting spending that much would be the equivalent of denying Kairos any funding every year for the next 2,285 years!

That's a lot of "nots".

Accountability in schools

If you care about the state of education in this country, then I would strongly urge you to attend the Society for Quality Education's upcoming seminar on school accountability.

To be held on April 26th, in Toronto, the seminar will discuss such questions as whether or not public schools are accountable, if accountability helps students perform better academically and how exactly do you measure accountability in schools.

The seminar will also include the Canadian premier showing of the controversial film, The Cartel.

Speakers for the event include: businessman, author, Theo Caldwell,  former Education Minister, John Snobelen, and Kevin Gaudet of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

(I will also be there moderating one of the panels.)

So it should be quite an interesting day, on an issue that truly matters.

Note -If you register before March 31st, you get a discount.

Hope to see you there. 

CTF Debt Clock

One of the hardest things to do in politics is whip up public interest in the National Debt.

I know, I've tried.

The problem is that although our crushing national debt is a serious fiscal problem, it's also a largely abstract problem.

You can't see the National Debt; it's negative impact on the economy isn't readily apparent; and as far as public policy issues go, unless you're an economist, the debt just isn't all that sexy.

Plus politicians usually have a short-term incentive to fatten the national debt with deficit spending.

After all, it's easier to brag about "stimulus" spending than it is to reduce the deficit.

That's why I am glad to see the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is making an effort to visualize the problem for Canadians with its "National Debt Clock."

Check it out and watch the debt numbers on the chronometer whiz by at warp speed.

It's depressing but it also brings home the message in a powerful way that government spending is out of control.

That's a warning Canadians need to hear loud and clear.

So help the CTF get out the word.

Pass Debt Clock along to your friends and donate a few dollars to the CTF.

Let's put the Debt Clock numbers in reverse.

Why I liked Goldwater

I am reading the late Barry Goldwater's autobiography and came across his reasons for seeking political office.

Here's what the former US Senator and one-time Presidential candidate wrote:

"I had little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I meant to reduce it in size. I did not undertake to promote welfare, for I proposed to extend freedom. My aim was not to pass laws but to repeal them. It was not to inaugurate new programs but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden ... and if were later to be attacked for neglecting my constituent's interests, I would reply that I had been informed that their main interest was liberty and in that cause I was doing the very best I could."

That's what a true conservative sounds like.

The lesson of Oda

The whole Bev Oda scandal could have been avoided if the Conservative Party simply had more confidence in conservatism.

Just imagine, for instance, if Oda had stood up in the House of Commons months ago and emphatically stated she was denying Kairos any government funds for one simple reason: it's wrong to use tax dollars to subsidize a private church group.

That's how a conservative would handle it.

Yes, denying Kairos funds in this manner would have triggered outrage from the Left, the media and the rest of the chattering classes.

But so what?

After all, that's what politics should be about -- debate.

And besides, the Conservatives could have easily won the PR battle on this. I doubt very much if the average Canadian voter wants to see his tax dollars funneled into some left-wing religious organization, especially given the country is burdened with a monstrous deficit.

But no, rather than taking an ideological stand the Conservatives tried to pass the buck by suggesting bureaucrats were against funding Kairos, even when that wasn't the case.

I guess they figured this would mute dissent.

If that's the case they sure miscalculated. The issue being debated now isn't about Kairos or about the wisdom of it receiving government funding, now the debate is all about the Tories blatantly undermining the integrity of the House of Commons.

That's a PR battle the Tories will lose.

And it all happened because for some reason the Conservatives don't want to be seen as too conservative or too ideological.

That's too bad.

Shakespeare wrote, "To thine own self be true."

That's a lesson the Conservatives should take to heart.

Maybe it's time for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to forget the PR gurus, forget the consultants and forget the spin doctors -- maybe it's time for Harper to simply act and govern like a true conservative.

 Harper should be Harper.

Media Alert X 2

I am scheduled to do interviews today, one on The Michael Harris Show (CFRA Radio) at 1:45 PM ET, the other on the CHCH TV show "Square off" at 5:30 PM ET.

Topic: Bev Oda.

Here's a preview of my views:

Should Oda be fired: Yes

Will Oda be fired: No

Will the Oda affair have any lasting political ramifications: Probably not.

De-constructing the cabinet

The Opposition wants Bev Oda, the Minister of International Co-operation, to resign because she doctored a document.

The first thought that struck me when I heard this story was, "Why do we even need a Minister of International Co-operation?"

I mean what is the purpose of this ministry? To get Canada to co-operate with the world? To get other countries to co-operate with each other? To urge more international co-operation when it comes to co-operating?

OK, I am just joking.

I actually know the real purpose of this Ministry is to perform the important and necessary function of giving a politician a nice paying job.

But anyway, the Oda story got me thinking about other federal cabinet posts and if we could eliminate any of them for the purpose of making government smaller.

So I did some research while waiting for my toast to pop and came up with the following list of cabinet posts that should be abolished:

* Ministry of Public Safety
Wasn't this what they once called the KGB?.

* Public Works
Actually that's probably is a misprint. It should read "Public Porks"

* International Trade
Seems to me international trade existed for centuries before this post was invented.

* Citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism
Otherwise known as the "Recruiting immigrants to support our party department"

* Transport, Infrastructure and Communities
Main purpose is to figure out inventive ways to finance arenas in Quebec.

* Canadian Heritage and Official Languages
Manages to waste tax dollars in both French and English.

* Sport
Organizes tail gate parties for party donors.

* Chief government whip
Not a figure of speech. I think somebody actually wields a whip!

And in order to ensure there is no regional bias when tax money is squandered in vote-buying splurges we have the following ministries:.

* Western economic diversification

* Science and technology, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario 

* Economy Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec 

Of course, I don't expect any of these posts to ever be eliminated.

But a guy can dream, can't he?

A win for freedom

Sometimes you can fight City Hall.

Just ask Marta and Lech Jaworski, a courageous couple who took on a bunch of bullying municipal bureaucrats and won.

Here's the back story:

For the past ten years the Jaworskis have allowed their son, Peter, to use their rural Ontario property to host the Liberty Summer Seminar, one of the premier libertarian/conservative events in Canada.

Never had a problem.

But last year, acting on an anonymous complaint, officials from the Municipality of Clarington claimed by hosting the LSS the Jaworskis had violated an obscure zoning by-law.

The charge carried with it a staggering $50,000 fine.

The Jaworskis, who were barely making ends meet, would have been ruined.

When they tried to talk reason with local officials the only advice the mayor could give was they should “beg for mercy.”

Well, the Jaworskis, who escaped from Communist Poland, didn't do "begging" . They decided, instead, to fight back.

And fortunately, they soon had the support of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, an excellent organization that mounts legal challenges to defend individual liberty.

The CCF argued by banning the LSS, the Clarington authorities were infringing on the right to free assembly.

It was a good argument. So good, in fact, the charges against the Jaworskis were dropped. Read about the case here.

This story provides two key lessons.

First, sometimes the best way to stand up for freedom is just to show a willingness to fight. Bureaucrats and politicians often don't expect us to fight for our rights. And when we do, they will sometimes back off.

Second, it's important to have organizations out there that care about promoting and protecting conservative values, organizations like the CCF.

Please contribute to this worthy organization.

There are a lot of battles yet to be won.

Scaring the voters

As far as outward appearances go our federal party leaders -- Conservative Stephen Harper, Liberal Michael Ignatieff, New Democrat Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois Gilles Duceppe --- don’t seem all that scary.

 Indeed if you didn’t know they were party leaders, you might think they were harmless, geeky, middle aged philosophy professors.

Yet when the next election rolls around an army of consultants, spin doctors, ad guys and pollsters will work day and night coming up with imaginative ways to make voters believe each leader is actually the stuff of nightmares.

When they are finished this is how each leader will likely be defined:

Stephen Harper
Harper is a heartless, mean-spirited, bully who likes to drown endangered animals in toxic tar sands, plus he is harboring a dangerous “hidden agenda” that will include installing the Taliban as head of Canada’s cultural agencies; forcing women to join convents and re-militarizing the Rhineland.

Michael Ignatieff

Ignatieff hates Canada. In fact, he hates Canada so much he actually left the country to live and work in a foreign land, where he picked up all sorts of treacherous and foreign ideas. Now he’s back to contaminate our country with his foreign-inspired book-learning ways. He must be stopped!

Jack Layton
Don’t let the socialist façade fool you. Layton is no friend of the working man. He is actually Harper/Ignatieff’s best friend. A vote for Layton is actually a vote for Harper/Ingatieff. Every vote for Layton brings Canada closer to rule by Capitalist Robber Barons/A Communist Coalition. Be afraid!

Gilles Duceppe

Duceppe is a traitor of the Quebec Nation. After all, every riding in the province that supports Duceppe, will lose out on the usual disproportionate amount of federal pork that’s doled out to Quebec in order to buy votes. Duceppe is denying Quebec’s its rightful plunder!

So those are your choices in the next election.

Vote wisely.

Vintage Gerry: Romancing the left

For those of you who think my criticisms of Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his lack of conservatism is some sort of new agenda, let me direct you to an article I wrote  way back in 1999. And yes, that's when Harper was my boss and he approved the text.

Romancing the Left

Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark recently provided a dramatic illustration of what's wrong with the political right in Canada today.

It happened when the former Prime Minister waded into a mob of angry left-wing activists who were in Ottawa to protest poverty (is anyone in favor of poverty?). Clark's plan was to assure this group - really nothing but a bunch of socialist rabble-rousers - that he too was concerned about poverty and homelessness, that yes the Liberals were not spending enough on social programs and that Tories really did have a heart.

And you know, the protesters gave him a big hand - but unfortunately for Clark they wanted to wrap it around his throat. Indeed, had it not been for the presence of some police officers, the Tories might have had another unexpected vacancy in their leadership.

The lesson from this little incident is crystal clear: conservative politicians have no business trying to win over a political element that's antagonistic to everything conservatism is supposed to stand for. It's not that conservatives are from Mars and socialists are from Venus; it's that their from different ideological galaxies.

Yet that hasn't stopped certain conservative leaders from obsessively wooing the left. We've got Reform Party leader Preston Manning bargaining his party's principles for a United Alternative; Ontario Conservative Premier Mike Harris eagerly throwing buckets of tax dollars at our socialistic health care monopoly; and Joe Clark . . . well Joe Clark just being Joe Clark.

And why are these leaders doing all this? Well, these love-starved political Romeos seem to have this Harlequin romance-like notion that ideological opposites should somehow magically attract. Just as the Lion will one day lay down with the lamb, left wingers could one day vote for parties of the right. And to help the process along a bit, conservative leaders are more than willing to engage in a little political flirtation even if that means shedding their conservative policy attire and slipping into something a little sexier, a little hipper, a little lefter.

Underlying the conservative courtship strategy, of course, is the belief that leftists go for the sensitive, compassionate types. So it's goodby Margaret Thatcher; hello Alexa McDonough. If the left wants compassion, conservative leaders will give them compassion. And if you look in the official politicians' handbook you will find "compassion" defined as "spending lots of other people's tax dollars so that you can feel good about yourself." Do it in an election and this tactic is called "compassioneering."

But actually it's just a political adaptation of an age old dating strategy: impress the political left with a big expensive dinner at a fancy restaurant, and hope to get lucky later on in the voting booth.

Will it work? Not a chance. Let's face it, the conservatives have as much chance of winning over left-wingers as Don Cherry has of being named honorary captain of the Swedish national hockey team. After all, why should lefty types ever support conservatives? If they want socialism they will go for the real thing and vote NDP or maybe Liberal.

Meanwhile forgotten in this seamy little scenario are the conservative voters in this country, those Canadians who believe in things like smaller government, and free enterprise and who are working too hard paying their tax bills to waste any time marching with placards around Parliament Hill. Doesn't anybody care about them? Have they been jilted?

Maybe, for now. But watch. When the next election comes around conservative leaders, will return home, flowers in hand, thinking they can sweet talk those dependable conservative voters into taking them back.

And conservative voters would take them back if they were a bunch of Hillary Clinton clones who would put up with anything for the sake of power. But they aren't. Conservatives are more like a self-respecting wife: they have values, they have principles and they have little patience for those who would discard them.

That's why when the political types, tired of romancing the left, come tiptoing home in the middle of the night, conservative voters will be waiting for them, curlers in their hair and a rolling pin in their hands.

Left wing bullies undermine democracy

Yesterday a bunch of communist thugs stormed a meeting of the Toronto City Council budget committee.

They disrupted the proceedings with chants, they assaulted and  insulted police officers, they showed complete disdain for the democratic process.

So what does the media focus its attention on? The unruly protesters?

Nope.

What made headlines is that Doug Ford, the committee vice-chair, told the left wing goons to "get a job."

Now, for me the only problem with Ford's comment was its unoriginality, I mean "get a job" is so 1960s. Plus I doubt anyone would hire the placard waving idiots who invaded City Hall.

Yet, for the media the quip overshadowed the actual protests.

And this illustrates the problem with the media and just generally with the political establishment.

They will rant and rave over the "bullying" of the Harper Conservatives in Ottawa, but all too often they will look the over way when the Left uses tactics of intimidation, threats and even violence.

Perhaps this is because they sympathize with some of the radical left's goals, or perhaps its because violent protests makes for good copy and television.

Who knows?

All I do know is that violence and bullyboy tactics have no place in a free and democratic society.

The Economist on Harper

The Economist magazine has an interesting article on Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which you should check out.

(And I am not pushing the article because I happened to be quoted in it.)