Liberals, NDP exchange blows online; Greens take high road
While the Liberals and the NDP beat up on each others' leaders, the Greens are taking a slightly different approach to this campaign, according to a Postmedia analysis of the major parties' social media feeds.
The Liberals and the Greens have persistently hammered at NDP Leader John Horgan for calling an election during a pandemic with a higher volume of messages than any issue mentioned by any of the parties. Other significant Liberal themes include “average families” and “economic recovery.”
By contrast, the B.C. Green party campaign is largely focused on issues intended to resonate with families, the data show.
They also mention scientists, the opioid crisis and the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, with high frequency.
Rather than spending on paid Facebook ads, the Greens are getting their message out with a huge volume of retweets on Twitter, which cost nothing.
Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson defended his party's attack ads, saying they are a response to the negative tone set by the New Democrats. The New Democrats' Facebook ads and tweets similarly key on their biggest rival, Wilkinson, and his “wealthy friends.” But the dominant themes are built on phrases such as “moving forward” and “we'll rebuild.”
“Our message has been consistent across all platforms, highlighting the ways the B.C. NDP will make life better for British Columbians, whereas the B.C. Liberals are focused on giving breaks to their wealthy friends leaving regular people to foot the bill,” said NDP press secretary James Smith, in a statement that echoed the language of their ads. The NDP is focused on “getting a handle on the out-of-control housing market and providing housing for our most vulnerable populations,” he said.
The party is also trying to make hay with the transfer of public health care insurance premiums from individuals to businesses, and their rebuild of ICBC, according to the social media analysis.
“For the NDP, obviously, they'd like to claim good government, but also, they want to dramatize the cost of voting for the other guys,” said UBC political scientist Richard Johnston.
But Horgan made himself a target for the Liberals' attack, he said.
“By virtue of calling the election, he's thrown away his highest cards, this reputation that he's carved out for prudent management of the coronavirus,” he said.
The tone and content of the NDP Facebook ad campaign made an about-face early in the week, shifting from attack ads to themes of rebuilding and health care, in ads targeted to specific ridings.
Thursday saw a one-day blitz of Punjabi-language ads, promising to “get Surrey back on its feet.”
A second wave of ads targeting Wilkinson's promise to replace the speculation and vacancy tax on empty homes emerged late in the week.
The Liberals this week launched a series of Facebook ads claiming that Horgan wants to “make tent cities across B.C. permanent,” which is consistent with their messaging on themes of public safety.
Friday, they launched Chinese-language ads promoting Wilkinson's promise to temporarily eliminate the provincial sales tax, claiming “a family of four can save $1,700 per year.”
Ad data was gathered from Facebook's Ad Library and included more than 700 ads paid for by the political parties between Sept. 21 and Oct. 1. Tweets from the same period were collected from both the official party accounts and the accounts of the party leaders and were combined for analysis, excluding retweets.