Tuesday, May 3, 2011

When Will the Attack Ads Start on Jack Layton?

Just askin'.

14 comments:

pogge said...

What time is it now?

Robert McClelland said...

The first one already aired on SunTVNews last Friday night.

Annie said...

I had this strange feeling last night, something was going on prior to the election, that some scheme was going on between Layton and the Conservatives.
Was it worth it to Jack to get Stornoway, with no say in parliament?

sharonapple88 said...

The attack ads should be interesting. NDP, here's what you're up against.

From the article: "The document shows the “GRPs” – or gross point ratings – that measure the frequency and reach of ads. In the Toronto market, for six weeks between Jan. 17 and Feb. 21, for example, the Conservative GRP was 1538.5 compared to 131.7 for the Liberals and 11.7 for the NDP. "

Also, political advertising is excluded from the Advertising Standards Canada code of advertising standards.

By the end of the Conservative attack ads, I'm pretty sure Layton would not have just been caught at a suspect massage parlour, he was engaging in some sort of orgry funded by tax payers' money.

Derrida (sous rature) said...

Big difference. Jack Layton is a well established and highly respected brand in Canadian politics. Personal attacks will not weaken that brand as we saw in the last weekend of the campaign. The scurrilous slander by the CPC was not about weakening the NDP but chasing right leaning Liberals and Conservatives thinking of supporting Layton back into the Conservative fold.

2. Red baiting, a communist slurs will increasingly have little effect. The NDP has become a legitimate competitor for government in this country with its historic assent into Official Opposition. The NDP brand is one of moderate, practical, social democratic measures, many of which the LPC would support. The NDP also are building a consensus as the only viable opposition to Harper and the only viable party and social movement to replace Harper in 4 years.

Don't blame the NDP for your unprecedented catastrophic loss. Blame liberal supporters in Ontario that ran scared into the arms of Stephen Harper when faced with the thought of an NDP led government. Shame on them for falling prey to desperate fear mongering by Harper and Ignatieff.

Lefty Liberals, progressive liberals, young liberals join us in the NDP tent, your real home.

James Curran said...

Who the hell is blaming the NDP? Don't get me started! Cause I'm really not in the mood for gloating from a party that will be an irrelevant opposition for the next 4 years.

Stephen Harper will do what ever the fuck he wants and Jack Layton and his tourists will have nothing to say about it. Tu comprend?

sharonapple88 said...

Big difference. Jack Layton is a well established and highly respected brand in Canadian politics. Personal attacks will not weaken that brand as we saw in the last weekend of the campaign.

Guess you didn't notice what they did to Stephane Dion. Formidable debator, a man who fought Quebec nationalists in Quebec, who had a surge of popularity when he won the leadership back in 2006, made into a wimp.

If they were able to get enough votes for a majority just by campaigning against a reckless NDP government... imagine what it'll be like in a few years time.

Jack Layton, limousine liberal. Jack Layton, in bed with separatists.t Jack Layton, the kindergarten teacher and his raucous caucus. By the end of it, you won't recognize your candidate, or your party.

Pedro said...

Calm down James!
We're just carrying on a conversation here.
Instead of scalp-wringing and worrying about your opponents' tactics and strategy why don't the Liberals come up with their own plan?
One that's different from the earlier plan.
Sorry, it's really easy today but I would like to see a Liberal option 4 years from now.
Keep the Kennedy stuff on the QT too 'cuz most have seen through the spin of the past 40 years. Nota bene, Ontarians' response to elitists posing as populists.
(As I duck and cover!)
PS I've got relatives from Lutsk! (yer word verification)

b_nichol said...

I have to agree with James, here.

This is going to be an all-out, all-media, all-corporate think-tank war against Layton and the NDP starting in a month or so.

Once the vote subsidy is eliminated (and we all know that it's coming), there will be nothing that the opposition can do about it until the next election. By then, their entire platform will have been defined for them by the Government of Harper(TM).

Cynical? Jaded? Perhaps, but after watching this corporate clown show in action for the last 5 years, I think realistic is a more apt description.

wondering said...

I live in BC. The attack ads by Conservatives against the NDP were certainly running before the election. They were all about the socialists planning to form a coalition with the separatists. The Liberal anti-NDP ads only showed up in the last week of the campaign, but their theme was higher taxes and untrustworthiness on gun control (and very cleverly couched so that you couldn't tell which side of the issue the commenters were on, just that whatever side that was, the NDP were on the wrong side. Give credit where credit is due, that ad was well done, given that that is such as polarizing issue here).

Sharon, I guess you must live in some other province where you experienced something different. But please don't think that just because you didn't see anti-NDP attack ads, then there weren't any. Furthermore, to insinuate to that there was some kind of cozy deal going on between the Cons and the Dippers completely ignores the experience of Canadians outside the province of Ontario.

I guess that's the center of the universe effect.

sharonapple88 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sharonapple88 said...

Sharon, I guess you must live in some other province where you experienced something different. But please don't think that just because you didn't see anti-NDP attack ads, then there weren't any.

I guess that's the center of the universe effect.


The "center of the universe" got the NDP attack ads from both the Liberals and the Conservatives, thank you very much. (Regionalism , sweet!) What I didn't see were the type of attack ads that really tried to destroy Layton's character. Something in the tempo of "He didn't come here for you" Ignatieff ads, or the "wimpy" Dion crap in 2008. The Conservative ads against Layton were kiddish in comparison. Sometime in the near future, I expect the Conservative machine to start ramping it up against Layton. And I doubt that his reputation will save him.

Feel free to disagree with me. But keep in mind, the Conservative party has a lot of money, these personal attack ads have been effective for them in the past -- why would they change tactics?

ck said...

To describe Jack Layton's situation, I think The Tyee said it best:

Harper's the only person in the county happier about the NDP's showing than Jack Layton because the NDP did to the Liberals exactly what Reformers and Alliance members used to do to the Tories. And thanks to the realities of parliamentary democracy, Layton has performed a surrealistic electoral magic trick –- he keeps gaining more seats and less power. In 2004 he had 19 seats, but held the balance of power in a Liberal minority government. Today his seats are in triple digits and the only real power he's going to have in Ottawa when parliament resumes is the ability to order pizza at Stornoway.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/05/03/ManningWins/

sharonapple88 said...

And thanks to the realities of parliamentary democracy, Layton has performed a surrealistic electoral magic trick –- he keeps gaining more seats and less power.

Creepy to consider.

Some other points from the article:

Vote subsidy dead. The Conservatives are allowing corporate donations to political parties once again.

Anyone surprised by this?