My latest: Celebrity apprentices

As is well-known: Ottawa and Washington, D.C. are Hollywood for ugly people. Less-known: using good-looking celebrities to win votes doesn’t always work.

Sometimes it even backfires.

Case in point: Kamala Harris, who is days away from watching her opponent take the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol building. Throughout the Democrat’s 100-day presidential campaign – for which this writer volunteered, full disclosure – Harris was notable for one thing above all: celebrity endorsements.

One minute after the debate between Harris and the Republican’s Donald Trump concluded, in fact, the most powerful person in show business posted a statement on X, endorsing Harris. 

“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight,” wrote music superstar Taylor Swift. “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris (https://www.instagram.com/kamalaharris/?hl=en) because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

Swift accompanied her post on X with a fetching shot of Herself holding one of her cats.  It was an unsubtle shot at the dumb remarks earlier made by Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, about Democratic “childless cat ladies.” Swift even signed off her post as “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”

Swift’s post “caused a major stir,” wrote Billboard. “A tremendous shot of adrenaline to [Harris’] campaign,” the New York Times declared in a three-byline story (not opinion column). Swift’s endorsement “could mobilize first-time and younger voters given her intense fandom,” enthused CBC News. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell declared it “the most important celebrity endorsement I’ve ever seen.”

Well, no, actually. Harris went on to decisively lose to Trump, who himself could only scrounge up endorsements from losers like Kid Rock, Mel Gibson and Joe Exotic. You know: the guy from Tiger King, who offered his support from a jail cell.

Like newspaper editorial endorsements, celebrity endorsements simply don’t have the cachet they once did. In fact – like newspaper endorsements – there is some data to suggest they actually have the opposite effect. An earlier survey by the Beacon Center found 81 per cent of Americans said Swift’s endorsement would not affect the way they voted. Five per cent even said it would make them less likely to take Swift’s advice.

Swift wasn’t the only one who pushed for Harris. Bruce Springsteen did, too, in multiple cities. Beyoncé did, as well, in a final-week star-studded gala. Others who stumped for the Democrats: Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Leonardo DioCaprio, and loads more. Effect on the ground: zero, or close to it.

Which brings, this week, to the Michael Ignatieff with a pocket calculator, erstwhile Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney.  The former Governor of both the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada popped by Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. Which is filmed in New York City, and not Timmins.

Carney was convivial and engaging, and demonstrated that he can put two sentences together without drooling. “I am an outsider,” said Carney, the outsider who has been giving Justin Trudeau financial advice for about two years, and whose leadership campaign is being run by Trudeau’s inner circle.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is the “type of politician who tends to be a lifelong politician,” Carney told Stewart, adding that Poilievre sees “opportunity in tragedy.” Coming from the guy who has now seen opportunity in the tragicomedy that is the Liberal Party leadership, that was bit rich. But we digress.

Carney got what he came for. Stewart, who meets the dictionary definition of lifelong curmudgeon, declared that Carney had “charm and debonair wit, yet strong financial backbone!”

For the few remaining card-carrying Liberal Party members – feeling lovelorn, lonely and lost – that’s practically enough to run an entire 36-day campaign on. “Mark Carney: he’s charming, debonair, and he can balance a chequebook! Vote Liberal!”

Will it be enough? Go ask Kamala, Mark. She’ll tell you:

The only endorsement that counts is the one you get from the voters.