Sunday, October 26, 2008

Tory “attack” ads “poisoned” the election!

"Research" by Angus Reid pollsters Andrew Grenville and Mario Canseco proves that Conservative TV ads "poisoned" the election. (Canseco also appeared on CBC’s Politics (Friday, Oct 24 - about 17 minutes in) where he held Don Newman’s rapt attention.) This has to be some of the lamest, most idiotic drivel I’ve ever seen. According to their "research" the "attack" ads:

... persuaded 11 per cent of Canadian respondents not to vote for any candidate at all.

... were key to producing the lowest voter turnout in Canadian electoral history...

... were part of a disturbing trend that is "poisoning the well" of Canadian politics.

It’s hard to imagine people being this stupid. If I was otherwise neutral but extremely offended by one party’s ‘vicious’ "attack" ads I’d make damn sure I voted for someone else. One can’t help wondering whether the Angus Reid "researchers" controlled for the possibility that their poll questions might have suggested yet another lame excuse for respondents’ not bothering to vote - which they wouldn’t have anyway.

And oh, those ultra-sensitive lefty souls:

... Many supporters of Canada's centre-left parties tend to be more idealistic than Conservatives, said Grenville. Idealists, people who dream of a better world, are prone to drop out of the electoral process if they believe it has become corrupt or unethical, Grenville said.
What a load of unmitigated hooey! "Idealists" who "dream of a better world" and "drop out". Are they serious?! Also, these "idealistic" lefties are well known for their tendency to be violent should they happen to ‘disagree’ with their political opponents. For example, (and) they firebombed BC Premier Gordon Campbell’s wife’s school office, firebombed his constituency office and harassed him during a commercial flight ("So! He’s in a democracy.") The Angus Reid "researchers" are based in Vancouver so they have no excuse for not being aware of these events.

"More idealist than conservatives"? Methinks that’s the "researchers" nuanced way of keeping the "Conservatives are meanies" meme alive and well. Then, for good measure, they add the blatant insinuations - "corrupt or unethical".

And didn’t Grenville and Canseco watch the leaders’ debates? Never mind a few seconds of TV commercials, Stephen Harper was subjected to two full hours of sustained attacks from four of his "idealistic" rivals. They called him a "fraud" (May), uncaring and incompetent (Layton), a liar (Dion), a Bush stooge (many times, all of them). And these debates were replayed several times in full and segments were repeated in TV news stories.

This is all reminiscent of the loopy sympathy many media pundits developed for poor, sad Stephane Dion. Dion’s thrice restarted interview exposed his obvious ineptitude. Instead of keying on the obvious they turned it into an attack on that meany, Harper. And let’s not forget that moronic Andrew Coyne’s weeping over the "disgraceful" treatment of Dion - that "kind and decent man". What is this, election politics or the Oprah f***ing Winfry Show?

The ridiculous whining from a severely biased MSM peanut gallery has gotten way beyond tiresome.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The poll itself was about the stupist piece of crud I can ever imagine. Considering, based on election results, 26 percent of those asked were Liberals, 20, percent NDP another 18 to 24 percent were Bloc, Green, Independant etc. That means that about 63 percent were non-Harper supporters being asked if Harper is a meanie and his ads were bad. DUH! This is a case of a pollster abusing his position to push his own agenda -- There is no possible way that the question was fair, the poll was reasonable or the intent honest. Let's have a poll asking if the Liberals are crooks and I bet a majority say yes.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

I watched Newman interviewing this pollster and Don was positively salivating!

JR, you just left a comment at my blog so you know what's driving me crazy right now is that pseudo-recount in Vancouver South.

That's what's keeping folks home. It proves that every vote doesn't count, because they DON'T ALL GET COUNTED!!!

Sorry, but I'm P.O.'d.

hunter said...

Jr, I looked at the Angus Reid site, nowhere do I find the survey talked about here. What were the questions asked? What were the results by region? Nothing.

Any reputable polling firm will release the data results, why haven't they?

Anonymous said...

It strikes me as odd that the Conservative adds portraying Stephane Dion as an incompetent twit were all negative, yet the Liberal ads, run by Chretien and Martin painting Stephen Harper as a way out Christian far right-winger with a hidden agenda to subvert all the 'progressive' policies of the Liberals was only uplifting and sincere campaign information. I didn't see any polling done to ask voters how they felt about those ads. In the case of Newman, I don't expect him to be anything else but another CBC Liberal front man.

Anonymous said...

Elections Canada is promoting voter apathy!!! Every vote gets counted in Quebec and PEI but not in Vancouver? Elections Canada needs to Explain to Canadians why the votes in Vancouver are not as important as in the rest of Canada. When Elections Canada has low standards as this, it is no wonder voter turnout is low. What kind of message is this sending to new Canadians in Canada? There needs to be an inquiry into Elections Canada. Canadians deserve better.

Anonymous said...

Despite what Newman tells us on the broaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwdcast, conservatives are more generous than liberals.
They give more blood, they volunteer more, and they donate more money in real dollars and as a percentage of their income.
The book Who Really Cares spells it out.
That generosity and their commitment combined with the new election finance laws will be the end of the liberals.
The liberals have catered to the victim mentality groups and those who are selfish and want the government to pay for everything.
Those people do not donate or help fund the liberals.

Stan

Canadianna said...

Did no one see the NDP ads with the black smoke spewing from refineries? What about the Martin ads -- tanks in the streets -- I know that one didn't actually air, but it got news time and there were other, equally vicious ones that did air.
How about bushharper.com?
But hey, pointing out the other guy is a risky choice is poisonous.
What planet do these people come from?

Jay Currie said...

Negative Ads.

In Canada.

We're not making this up.

....

We should go for beers

Anonymous said...

So, how many people did Dion persuade not to vote by missing the last 43 votes in the HOC himself? That doesn't set a good example, when the leader of a national party skips 43 votes in a row...

Marginalized Action Dinosaur said...

The black rod covered how while the lefties were whining that the conservatives had too many attack adds and were mean etc etc.

Stephane Dion was saying about 9 times per speech that Harper was a liar as he raised the debate to Chivalric levels.

This is ludicrous I remember the slime job the left did on my reform party too.

One of the funnier smears is Dion saying the conservatives are ideological. Like his far left Whackos who want me to pay a carbon tax when the windchill hit -9 this morning aren't ideological?

JR said...

Beer. Did someone say beer? Great idea!

Dino, I just looked up that Black Rod post-election piece. I especially liked the stats showing that of the 990,641 fewer votes cast for major parties this election than the last, about 850,000 (or 85.7% of the missing voters) were former Liberal voters. It wasn't Tory attack ads that turned them off it was just Dion and his Green Shaft taxes.

Anonymous said...

Why do you bother at all, it's a waste of time. These polls are hardly intended to be believable, they are intended a) to please the liberal voters b)to make angry the conservative voters. Voting or not is matter of subjective decision, until there is somebody with gun blocking your way you can't say:"I wanted to vote, really, but the conservative ads made me not to fulfill my duty!"
Take care
Elli

Anonymous said...

48% voter turnout in NFLD due to the oppressive ABC campaign. Aside from the possibility that voters off the Rock may also have been ABCers, I think the NL numbers may have skewed downward the national number of 59.1% turnout.