On the campaign trail – Day 12 (25 days to go)
By Scott Munnoch, Temple Scott Associates
Day 12 of the federal election campaign and things continue to become more interesting. Two new polls out today confirm the trend that the race is tightening between the governing Liberals and the opposition Conservatives. In fact, the CBC poll shows a slight lead for the Liberals while the rolling Nanos poll for CTV has the Conservatives ahead by less than a percentage point.
And the campaigns are remarkably different.
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau is criss-crossing the country from east to west and back to the east. Yesterday he was in BC for a day and today he is in Quebec again. Some might even compare this tactic to the 1980 campaign when his father spent the campaign crossing the country in a similar fashion. While it makes you look busy, the reality is you’re avoiding the media for much of the time, trying to focus your message to a single announcement a day. Today he announced a modest increase to the guaranteed income supplement for seniors while the media were focused on other issues, especially responsibility for Canadians in Afghanistan.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has travelled the least of the major political leaders – instead preferring to conduct virtual town halls and outreach from a Conservative media studio in Ottawa. Very different from the traditional way of campaigning, but in a pandemic it might work.
The Liberals continue to stumble with senior members of the government delivering controversial statements nullifying the Party’s main message of the day. Following Chrystia Freeland’s “Manipulated Tweet” on Tuesday, two-time Liberal MP Maryam Monsef yesterday used the term “our brothers” to refer to the terrorist Taliban in Afghanistan. This led to a flurry of comments on social media, lead stories by the national media outlets and once again a confused Liberal message.
Today, Canada announced an additional $50 million for humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan and surrounding countries. Also, Canada has wrapped up evacuation operations in Afghanistan, leaving many with ties to Canada stranded. The US, British and French Embassies have asked citizens not to travel to Kabul Airport leading to further confusion. The Americans, defenders of the international airport, are pulling out their forces on August 31st resulting in Canada and other countries departing ahead of that end point. Optics resulting from early neglect for the governing party are not good and finger-pointing and blame for putting Canadian lives in jeopardy are likely to continue.
The government today is being forced to justify it’s actions to help stranded Canadians in Afghanistan while members of the media are trying to determine actual responsibility for the government’s actions. Justin Trudeau chose his words carefully on this sensitive issue.
Look for Afghanistan to remain a significant issue in the current election campaign as the opposition parties attack the governing Liberals for their lack of action. Media pictures and reports are very powerful especially following today’s suicide bombings. Although the US withdrawl deadline is next week, the controversy is likely to continue well into September and beyond.
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