Politics
By Kirk Winter
Let The Mudslinging Begin
If you’re a politics junkie like I am, you are salivating at the possibility of both a provincial and municipal election occurring in 2018. If you are just a casual observer of the blood sport that politics has become at all levels, you are probably not looking forward to the onslaught of negativity and attack advertising that now dominates the political landscape. In the last three provincial elections in Ontario, almost half of the voting age population has stayed home. In 2014, only 52.1 percent of Ontarians chose to vote. When polled, Ontarians report their disgust with the negativity and the failure to focus on issues that make a difference in people’s lives as the reason they refused to vote. Multiple American studies give us a snapshot of how they feel about negative campaigning. • 76 percent of Americans would like to see negative campaigning and attack ads eliminated • 55 percent of Americans see negative attackorientated campaigning as unethical • 46 percent strongly agree that negative campaigning undermines and damages democracy • 57 percent of Americans say that an onslaught of negativity makes them less likely to vote. A final statistic questions the efficacy of even using negative campaigning, as only 13 percent of Americans find negative campaigning and advertising effective. Yet, political operatives believe that this kind of politics works. In the election campaign of 1960 between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy, only 10 percent of the advertisements were negative. By 2012, the campaign between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, only 14.3 percent of the ads were positive. With a provincial election mere months away, all three parties in Ontario are crafting messages that they think will resonate with Ontario voters. The Conservatives have made it very clear that they are going to make this campaign a referendum on Premier Kathleen Wynne, and many expect a withering round of negativity aimed at the sitting Premier. Some seasoned observers predict that if former Toronto city councillor
Doug Ford is selected to lead the Conservatives, decorum and civility on the campaign trail will hit an all-time low, as the Ford family is infamous for their “scorched earth” political campaigns which plumb the depths of negativity. Tragically, there is a reason for negative campaigning, despite the public’s revulsion towards it. Negative campaigning suppresses turnout, decreases confidence in the electoral process and turns people away from voting, and reinforces among the truly committed voter the preconceived thoughts they had about their candidate and the opposing candidates. A thoroughly negative candidate, with an angry and committed base, can win an election in which they have no right to be competitive if good people stay home...Donald Trump anyone? Is there an answer to this poison that has infected our political system? Mexico believes they have found it. In 2007, Mexico banned all negative television and radio advertisements. The Mexican Federal Electoral Institute closely monitors broadcast advertising and has ordered ads removed, public apologies issued by the offending campaigns and fines levied. Voter turnout has improved and Mexicans, when polled, claim they have more confidence in their system as a whole. It can only be hoped that we, as Canadians, follow the Mexican example, and finally force our politicians to tell us what they stand for rather than what they are against. It would be a refreshing change that our battered and vindictive current system badly needs.
FOUR Vie For Ontario PC Leadership
With the sudden departure of former leader Patrick Brown, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party finds itself leaderless less than four months before a provincial election this June. A hastily called leadership convention for March pits four very different candidates battling for the honour of going to political war against Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne and NDP leader Andrea Horvath. As The Kawartha Promoter heads to press, the
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February 22, 2018 - The Kawartha Promoter
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