Over the past week I have travelled through roughly a dozen Vancouver area ridings, and there was a very noticeable trend in campaign sign distribution. In Liberal ridings there were comparatively few NDP signs (unless the Tory candidate is a non factor), and in NDP ridings there were very few Liberal signs. There are some ridings where the NDP and Liberals are competitive and there is an equal distribution, but in most that I visited it was obvious that the weaker coalition partner was not making a full effort to win the other's seats. The Liberals are afraid to make a formal public non-compete agreement with the NDP, but there are non-formal ways to encourage "strategic voting".
Has anyone else noticed similar trends elsewhere in the country? When the election is over Elections Canada will publish a final tally of money spent by each party in each riding, but I'm not sure that money alone is an adequate metric to quantify how much effort a party has made in a riding to get elected.
Money spent can go towards providing pay cheques for loyalists, so yes you are correct. The point is this though, less exposure is less promotion of the brand and overall it hurts both party's.
ReplyDeleteA coalition govt is perfectly legal.
ReplyDelete...a coalition govt is perfectly legal...
ReplyDeleteThen why wont the Libs just come out and say it?
..."CUZ THEY'D HAND HARPER HIS MAJORITY"....
Hmmmm....cant wait for the good folks in Western Canada to wake up one day and find the city of Toronto has elected our new PM...and his 78 seats...hey, but its legal.
Here's proof Iceman.... in Ajax
ReplyDeleteAJAX, Ont. - NDP candidate Jim Koppens is tanning on a Caribbean beach as his rivals spend 10-hour days knocking on doors and erecting election signs in this Toronto-area riding.
Koppens, 48, a meat cutter at Loblaws, has been the invisible candidate as the campaign battle intensifies.
He doesn't have volunteers, signs, or even a campaign office
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/CanadaVotes/News/2011/04/13/17982876.html
Well Anony...a Coalition gov't may be legal - if it includes the party that GOT THE MOST VOTES...for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th parties to gang up and take over the Govt's isn't legal - it's a COUP
ReplyDeleteSaanich and the Islands is faily well balanced, but we have Lizzy Maybe to contend with. split vote and CPC (Gary Lunn) up the middle for a victory again.
ReplyDeleteAnonn:
ReplyDeleteCoalitions are perfectly legal, but not too frequent here, one so far in 145 years. Anyway I thought I heard Iggy emphatically rule out a coalition last night. Maybe he is now planning a cooperative agreement with his other partners after May 2.
Woah -- this is definitely happening in my riding. I had not noticed before but after you mentioned it I made a point of looking at sign distribution. Libs are the only competitors in my riding. I went for a drive 20 minutes across the riding. There are dozens of Lib signs -- a handful of NDP. I saw a total of 2 NDP on my way to my destination and a few more coming back. Clearly this is not coincidental.
ReplyDeleteForgot to say re the above comment (Anon at 7:04) that mine is a Conservative Ontario Riding (Gordon O'Connor) -- definitely something weird going on with those signs.
ReplyDeleteIn Edmonton, the Liberal in NDP MP Duncan's riding is a 20 year old non-existent candidate. They did that last time to win the riding, I don't think it is going to work this time.
ReplyDeleteOther ridings I have driven through have only NDP signs against the Conservative candidate. The Liberals have written off Alberta, Iggy just flies over us on the way to BC.
From the Ottawa citizen:
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the Ottawa-Orléans NDP candidate Martine Cenutas is keeping a low profile. NDP headquarters said she will not do interviews and there is no biographical information on the riding's website.
Is anyone keeping score on the number of ridings this "strategic voting/coalition" is affecting?
Should we have" a judicial inquiry? at a cost of hundreds of thousands? (LOL just quoting Jack Layton about the AG report which will be available May 3rd)
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Conservative+candidate+limits+debates/4612303/story.html#ixzz1JWPeDeyL
It is so obvious that, if we do not get a majority, the coalition plans to vote down the VERY compromise budget and take over Canada!!! Another blogger noticed the same trend for a lazy NDP candidate in Ajax-Pickering. Very sneaky and horrific strategy to excled all of the west from participation in Canada's future!
ReplyDeleteGet out and volunteer people - this is a very important election for Canada's future solvency!!!