Channel changer?

Susan D. on the Grits getting in on the pre-writ ad game, here.

My take? The problem isn’t the tactic. The problem is the strategy.

The Reformatory campaigns worked because they defined two unknowns – Dion and Ignatieff – before they could define themselves.

Harper is a known quantity. The Liberal leader-to-be isn’t.

Negative always works best when you are creating an impression. Not changing an impression.


The permanent campaign

Susan’s yarn, here, on the (smart) Rae decision to get tough. Overdue.

Nay-sayers will say it’s closing the barn door after the horse has fled, etc., but that’s not the problem. The problem is that the Reformatories’ anti-Dion and anti-Ignatieff ads served to define Dion and Ignatieff before they could define themselves.

That’ll be the problem, once again, in 2013 or so: the Grits will pick another shiny new leader, and the Cons will spend millions to smear him/her before the election.

The Reformatory leader is a known quantity; the Grit leader-to-be isn’t. Attack ads always work best with the latter, not the former.


In today’s Sun: Brangelina, the royal heir

Prince Brad Pitt? I beg your pardon?

It was Canada Day, you see, and I was on the radio with a republican-type fellow. Vancouver’s CKNW had thought it would be fun to have me debate the monarchy with an anti-monarchy person.

A person then proceeded to declare Prince William and Kate — more properly referred to as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — were about as relevant to modern-day Canada as movie stars.

Why not make Brad Pitt our head of state, then, the republican asked?


A million is a lot of votes

This buffoon has now signalled, definitively, that he thinks some Canadians are more equal than others. He wanted to send you that message, and he did that.

So, now you need to send a message right back at Rob Ford. Start organizing against him; raise money; recruit others; do everything you can to ensure that there is a candidate who will beat this troglodyte at the ballot box.

Leaders are supposed to bring people together, not drive them apart. This man is a disgrace, and he needs to be taught a lesson.

Let’s do it.