The anatomy of Negative Politics: CPC Website

I just went over to the CPC website (conservative.ca).

Why? Well, just to check it out and see if they had anything interesting there.

When I read their “headlines” down at the bottom of the page I immediately noticed one thing. The first 3 words of each headline either had “Liberal” or “Paul” in them. Indeed, every single headline was not a proclamation of what the Conservatives or Stephen Harper are doing. But rather, what the Liberals and NDP were doing.

Here are the three headlines as the appeared when I viewed them.

OTTAWA – Liberal leader Paul Martin has finally realized there’s an election going on. And with an electorate having waited for a week and a half, he’s finally started to speak – and to say nothing.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, whose government has been negotiating day-care deals with the provinces, said that’s a key difference between him and Harper.

Issue: The Liberals and the NDP, evidently now defenders of Canada’s most hated tax, are trying to convince Canadians that the Conservative Party’s plan to cut the GST is not a tax cut for the poor.

For the sake of fairness, I went over to the Liberal and NDP websites as well… just to see how they presented their headlines.

The Liberals were more interesting…. they still had the negative ad… but they compared it directly with what Paul Martin was saying.

First:

Liberals Announce Handgun Ban for Safer Communities

Then:

Harper Opposes Gun Control

Smart tactic…

The NDP?

Not as smart as the Liberals, but not as negative as the Conservatives either.

Their headlines read:

Liberals Fail To Stop Guns At Border »
Statement By Jack Layton On Afghanistan »
The Last-Minute Liberal Crime Announcement »
Martin Talks Crime, Forgets Communities »
Jack Layton’s speech on help for seniors at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia »
Last-minute Liberals scramble to fix real problems created by real cuts »

And the Green Party? No, I won’t forget about them…

On their site there isn’t a single mention of another party. That’s the way it should be. It’s my understanding that in marketing when you’re selling yourself, you want to speak about… yourself! Not the other guy. It’s just common sense. People respond much better to a positive message.

First impressions are important, which is why I think what’s on the frontpage of these campaign sites is critical to the message of the party.

Overall from the big 3 parties, it’s still all too negative for my liking. But I’d have to give the Liberals the nod for openly creating a debate the minute someone “walks in” to their website.

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