Month: September 2021

When all is said and done election 2021 will end where we pretty much left off a couple of months ago.

Was it worth it- NO.

For the most part it was a repeat of the same tired policies of the previous election- and once again the majority of voters in Canada rejected the Conservative’s policies.

The CPC will of course pat themselves on the back for getting the highest vote percentage of any party which means zero in realty.

I feel sorry for O’Toole. He started so far behind in the polls and ran a very credible campaign. The knives will be out of course, we are already seeing the gutless “unnamed sources” calling for a possible leadership review.

The Conservatives shifted a bit on climate change, but not enough for the newer generation of voters. Neither does their childcare plan work for the younger urban voters or families living near the poverty line. The Liberal plan simply plays better with modern, younger families regardless of its cost.

The Conservatives also fell apart on the vaccine issue, the one issue that was originally one of their best attack issues. O’Toole’s everyday refusal to answer the simple question of how many of his candidates were vaccinated showed him as weak on this issue and afraid to criticize the antivaxxers in his party. It created an element of distrust in many voters who liked him on other issues. The Liberals took quick advantage of this and the antivax protestors to turn this issue into one of their stronger attack points.

Add in the other two famous Liberal attack points-abortion and gun control and you have succeeded in limiting voters’ choices, especially in the urban centers where there is always a heavy concentration of ridings that vote Liberal or NDP. It is hard to believe that a modern political party still can’t put those two issues to bed once and for all and the Conservatives will still allow these two issues to remain out there to cost them more votes the next time around.

In the next six months watch for right wing elements in the party to try to remove O’Toole. The usual unnamed sources will keep that alive. Watch for the Liberals who don’t like to lose and a minority government is a loss in their eyes; to start playing the same game with their now twice wounded leader. The difference will be that they will have the brains to do it discreetly.

12-18 months for now we will be doing it all over again.

As we enter the final week of our pandemic election, here is some advice from an old political pro- take a deep breath and relax.

Do your own research. Dig deep, ignore the media hype.

The media will push poll after poll at you- after all they are paying big dollars for them. Take a glance at them, then largely ignore them. Some pollsters may have a bias, you rarely know their sample size or the order the questions were asked and the margin of error is buried if shown at all in the news story.

In a tight race (which if you believe the polls) is what we are seeing now, a difference of one or two percent each day with parties going back and forth in the lead is often within the poll’s margin of error.

Read widely. Find a few columnists or reporters that at least try to report the facts without an obvious bias. Gone are the days when the majority of reporters tried to accurately report all sides of an issue. Many today would be better classified as opinion writers.

Various television channels and newspapers have a known slant or bias. All of which of course they will deny. Read, watch, and form your own opinion.

Political war rooms will be closely watching the various leader’s tour schedules. Where are they today, how long are they staying, where are they going next?

In the last week, those leaders that are confident that they are gaining ground and have momentum will often be visiting ridings they don’t hold. Instead, they will be in ridings held by their opponents, trying to squeeze a few more votes their way and snatch the riding away from the other party.

You will find the leaders that feel their campaign is in trouble, constantly dropping into ridings that they already hold. Hoping in the final days of the campaign that their fleeting visit- often at an airport or riding level BBQ or campaign office will keep that riding loyal to their team.

In the last 2-3 days of the campaign, watch for each party to try to deliver a knockout blow with a big story. Every party keeps one or two of these (we held some back for a year or longer) to try and change voters’ minds when the target of the story has too little time to respond and change the public’s view of them.

In the end, think for yourself, form your own opinions based on the best facts that you can uncover.

Make sure that you vote. In a close election, every vote really does count.