Tories have experience campaigning during COVID-19
Conservatives have a very full war chest and have hired Harper-era Tories to help out
OTTAWA—If Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has one advantage heading toward the Sept. 20 federal election, it’s that he has spent the better part of two years campaigning during the COVID-19 crisis.
The pandemic hit Canada when the 2020 Conservative leadership contest was just picking up steam, forcing O’Toole’s team to jettison plans for inperson events, temporarily pause fundraising efforts and rethink their strategy.
Campaigns strategists don’t always love deviating from the plan. But COVID-19 forced them to be nimble when there was uncertainty about the virus.
Those close to O’Toole are hoping that experience pays off in the current campaign, which is taking place against the backdrop of COVID-19’s fourth wave.
Lights, camera, traction?
The party has invested in a downtown Ottawa studio to serve as a virtual campaign hub. O’Toole test drove the facility, at the Westin Hotel blocks from Parliament Hill, several times in the spring with news conferences and announcements. The party also used the space to record advertisements and hold video conferences with O’Toole’s supporters.
Should provincial health protocols limit the Conservative leader’s tour, the party can pivot to virtual events and media availabilities run out of the leased studio space — complete with a wallsized screen and all the gear required to beam O’Toole coast to coast to coast.
The Big Blue Machine
The party remains the undisputed champion of federal political fundraising, bringing in roughly double the donations of the governing Liberal party — $13.6 million in the first half of 2021, compared to $6.8 million for the Liberals.
The flush war chest means the party can afford to spend to the limit in the upcoming federal campaign. In 2019, it came just shy of that limit, spending $28.9 million of an allowable $29.1 million.
But, as 2019 showed, money isn’t everything in Canadian federal elections.
The data game
Once the dominant player in the use of modern campaign tools — data-driven efforts to identify and turn out voters — the Conservatives have spent years playing catch-up to Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party. Trudeau’s team credited its historic 2015 majority win to a revitalized data game that helped identify target seats and trends — and has been upgrading and improving those tools ever since.
Those close to O’Toole believe they have narrowed the gap. They’re also entering this campaign with considerable turnover in the party’s top ranks — a new leader and a new campaign team. That team has basically been on a campaign footing since O’Toole secured the leadership in August 2020.
Help from overseas
O’Toole’s team has tapped two consulting firms from abroad — the U.K.-based Stack Data Strategy and Topham Guerin, social media consultants with offices in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand — to bolster its campaign.
Stack is assisting the party’s data analytics operations in an attempt to close that data campaigning gap with the Liberals.
Topham Guerin, who has helped devise strategy for conservative campaigns across the world, is providing advice on getting O’Toole’s message across on social media.
Key players
> Campaign manager Fred DeLorey:
A longtime Conservative, DeLorey worked in Stephen Harper’s office when he was prime minister, served as director of political operations for the party and ran as a candidate in his native Nova Scotia in 2015. DeLorey served as O’Toole’s campaign manager for both his failed 2017 leadership bid and his successful one in 2020. DeLorey will lead the Conservatives’ war room from the party’s offices on Albert Street in Ottawa.
> Chief strategist Dan Robertson:
Along with DeLorey, Robertson was responsible for O’Toole’s successful strategy in the party’s 2020 leadership campaign. Another Harper-era veteran, Robertson led the party’s advertising campaign in the 2011 election, ran strategic communications for the Conservative government, and served as chief strategist for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives from 2015 to 2018.
> Senior adviser to the leader Tausha Michaud: One of O’Toole’s closest confidants, Michaud served as his principal secretary during the Conservative leadership race and his chief of staff in opposition. She is expected to travel with O’Toole during the campaign.
> Director of scripting and policy Dan Mader: A veteran of federal and provincial conservative politics, Mader has been busy behind the scenes pulling together the Conservative platform for months — a job he previously did on O’Toole’s leadership campaign. Mader is expected to shift gears during the campaign to travel with the leader’s tour, assisting O’Toole with his speeches and policy pitches.