Big-spending campaign will ramp up ad war
New Democrats, Tories, Grits expected to spend $28M on TV, radio promo
OTTAWA— The longest election campaign in modern Canadian history hits the midway point this week and political parties are ramping up their advertising wars.
Under new changes brought in last year by the Conservative government, campaign spending limits increase with the length of the writ period, meaning a party with a full slate of 338 candidates this year can spend almost $54.5 million.
According to Elections Canada returns, the big three national parties spent between 39 and 50 per cent of their 2011election campaign budgets on TV and radio advertising — a combined total of $28 million, not including “local” ads by individual candidates, who have their own spending limits.
If the same proportions hold true this year, the Conservative, New Democrat and Liberal national parties could pour an unprecedented $20 million to $30 million each into their respective air wars, plus millions more in regional ads by local candidates.
Here’s a look at the state of play in the ad wars through the first five weeks of the 78-day campaign: Conservatives: The deep-pocketed governing party has been blanketing the airwaves with ads attacking Justin Trudeau since last May, long before the official campaign began.
“The Interview” series, in which actors pretend to examine Trudeau’s resumé before declaring him “just not ready,” was a fixture throughout August on everything from news channels and sports networks to specialty channels, according to sightings posted on social media.
Harper, with a nine-year record to run on, has been largely absent from the Conservative ad campaign so far. A new English-language Conservative ad features actors talking about the leadership options and ends with a white-haired woman earnestly stating: “Stephen Harper isn’t perfect, but when it comes to the economy we can depend on him.” New Democratic Party: The NDP has been leading in national public opinion polls since the official campaign began and have coasted on that front-runner status with an almost non-existent media buy until this week, presumably mustering their resources for a big push later in the campaign when they hope to seal the deal.
A new, soft-focus NDP ad narrated by Mulcair is going into paid circulation this week, while a hard-hitting attack ad targeting a list of Harper appointees in legal difficulties generated plenty of online buzz but did not appear to be the subject of a significant media buy. Liberals: The Liberals under Trudeau have faced paid Conservative attack ads literally since the day Trudeau was chosen party leader in April 2013. The barrage only intensified with the start of the election campaign last month and the Liberals responded with a paid election ad that appeared to break one of the cardinal rules of politics: it repeated the language of an opponent’s criticisms.
Nonetheless, the ad with Trudeau declaring himself “ready” to govern appears to have received a significant financial push, appearing everywhere from NASCAR, baseball, soccer, Canadian Football League and NFL preseason telecasts to the Food Network and at least one episode of Citytv’s Bachelor in Paradise. Green party: There’s no evidence that Elizabeth May’s Green party is running any paid national advertising yet, but the party did get a minor earned media coup with the release of an online campaign ad featuring Green candidate and former CBC meteorologist Claire Martin reprising her TV persona with a “political” forecast.