Sandford Borins

Yesterday’s nearly identical repeat of the 2019 election makes clear that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives achieved their desired outcomes: no Liberal majority government, no Conservative government. The outcome, as well as the prevalence of negative messaging by each party about the other party and its leader, demonstrates that the counter-narratives prevailed. Fear and…

I’ve been keenly watching the Liberal and Conservative ads on broadcast television, YouTube, and Facebook. Now that it is Election Day and the campaign is over, I see some opportunities both parties have missed. O’Toole’s Delayed Introduction I criticized the Conservatives for doing too little to introduce Erin O’Toole right after he was elected party…

I voted at the advance poll just after the debates. Primarily as a matter of reflection and self-justification, rather than an attempt at persuasion, I will explain my vote. The Wrong Time First, I think that the middle of the fourth Covid-19 wave was the wrong time to call an election. In the absence of…

A first-past-the-post multi-party system is rife with strategic voting. Usually, supporters of smaller parties vote for the centrist party closer to their preferences to prevent the centrist party they dislike from winning. On the left, the Liberal Party has long encouraged NDP and Green adherents to vote strategically to defeat the Conservatives. What is new…

Every narrative has a counter-narrative that subverts, inverts, distorts, or parodies it. In politics, the counter-narrative to a political leader’s heroic narrative may be developed by their opponents or may be the result of their own behaviour. Examples of the latter include the proponent of family values carrying on an extramarital affair or the proponent…

In his film about the conflict between Pierre Trudeau and Rene Levesque, The Champions, documentarist Donald Brittain refers to “the awesome weapons of office.” That attention-grabbing phrase brings to mind what politicians are fighting over and which of those weapons they would use if elected. A consistent difference between the Liberal (LPC) and Conservative (CPC)…

I have long argued that a political party needs both a heroic narrative about its leader and narratives of incompetence, self-seeking, or incapacity about its opponents’ leaders. It is particularly important for a newly selected leader to advance their heroic narrative – tell their own story – quickly, because, if they do not, they are…

The Conservatives continue to climb in the polls, with a lead of 2.5 percent in the latest CBC Poll Tracker and an average seat projection of 132, very close to the Liberals’ 138. Not only are Conservatives expected to maintain their big majorities in the west, but they will pick up marginal seats in suburban…

The election campaign is certainly not going as expected. According the CBC News Poll Tracker, the Conservatives are leading the Liberals by 2 percent in the popular vote, and pulling even in projected seats. The Liberals had expected a cakewalk and have run an uninspired campaign, as demonstrated by the ads we discussed in a…

In my view, fighting Covid – 19 is by far the most important near-term priority of Canadian government and society. Therefore I disagree with the Trudeau Government calling an election in the middle of the fourth wave. My view is not that of Opposition politicians, who argue that an election should not have been called…

The first Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) and Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) election ads have now been posted on YouTube. The NDP, however, has not yet posted its first. A Man Who Can Three Liberal ads, Pull Together and Relentless in English and Solidarite in French, all deal with the pandemic. Their message is…