We normally run all the cool Canadian ads from the NHL Center Ice free preview all at once. Canada election 2019 cast a significant shadow over the preview, so we wanted to spotlight those ads separately and then run the rest of the ads after the election.
We haven't forgotten about Tim Hortons or Skip the Dishes. They will show up soon. Now on to the political related ads.
We've run ads during the Canada election 2019 notebooks on Sundays. The ad ratio on the hockey games is reflective more on money than party status among the electorate.
The Liberals had a single ad, positive. NDP and Greens didn't have ads during hockey games. The Conservatives had 3 different ads, 1 positive and 2 negative.
The negative ads take the traditional route of offering newspaper headlines as a way of telling a story. Some of those headlines are linked to opinion pieces instead of news stories. In a clickbait era, headlines don't always tell the true stories.
The negative ads match the tone of Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer's debate tone. Justin Trudeau, Tom Mulcair, and Elizabeth May had a strong tone against Stephen Harper in 2015. Scheer doesn't see that his anger is showing.
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Unifor is a major Canadian union. The ad says Canadians should "rethink our energy strategy."
The ad never says the word "refinery" but talks about the troubles of exporting unrefined products and imports those refined products. I've wondered for years why Canada would not invest in refineries to create jobs and ship a more refined product in pipelines. The premise of the Keystone XL pipeline was to have Canadian oil refined in Texas. Unrefined oil can do more damage in a pipeline spill. This was an issue with British Columbia premier John Horgan and then Alberta premier Rachel Notley.
Conservatives aren't thrilled with unions, but this ad seems like there is some common ground with unions and the oil/gas sector.
Petro-Canada, associated with oil, ran an ad about how Canadians can now drive from the Rockies to the Maritimes in an electric vehicle thanks to Petro-Canada electric chargers. Having a vast country like Canada and the United States makes driving an electric car more difficult. This feels like news more people should know.
Americans have more races and more elections to deal with than Canada does
Elections Canada is the primary reason Canadians can hold their heads high about democracy. Voting is easy and encouraged. These ads remind Canadians that the process should be easy. Canadians may not realise that the United States doesn't have a central election system encouraging the act of voting.
The early voting period happened over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Canadian elections haven't always been set at a certain time. The 2015 and 2019 elections were in October on a more fixed schedule. A minority government scenario can change that schedule.
As we've noted in the past, Canadians have a lot fewer elections than Americans. Canadians don't have political pressure to deny people the right to vote. There were the Conservative robocalls giving voters false information about voting. Canada is a lot better off than the United States.
The debate promo might be similar to promos you might see for U.S. debates. The fun part is going through the 5 female faces that ran the English language debate.
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The journalism ads are almost as masking as the political ads. The coverage is about you and your concerns.
CBC and CTV (through TSN) ads ran during hockey coverage. Global had a national newscast while Citytv, owned by Rogers, doesn't. Citytv has local newscasts in Toronto, Montréal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. What little impact Citvtv had with national news is long ago in concept as well as time.
CTV's Lisa LaFlamme sounds earnest when she says "We don't want to just cover the horse race. This is not a game. We're covering this through the eyes of the voters."
LaFlamme talks about the earnestness of getting up at 5 in the morning to cover the candidates on a daily basis. Being embedded with a campaign isn't necessarily leading to better journalism and actually keeps you away from the voters you are trying to serve.
CBC's slogan is "Your election. Our responsibility." Andrew Chang, one of the four CBC anchors, talks about family and responsibility. "As Canada's public broadcaster, we're accountable to all Canadians. And like you, we care about good journalism."
Canadian journalism is way ahead of the U.S. but has its limitations. Can't vouch for CTV coverage, but LaFlamme is overselling the impact of CTV journalism and TV journalism in general. CBC still carries the mantle in Canada. Rosemary Barton and Vassy Kapelos at times feels too jaded and cynical. I'm as cynical and jaded as any journalist but have some eyes open to viewers and listeners who carry about things besides the horse race.
Has felt like CBC, outside The National, has been rooting for exciting stories and seemed genuinely miffed that the public cared less about the blackface photos than they did. I heard 2 different accounts on the radio side leading up to the official debate that ignored the existence of the MacLean's/Citytv debate. We had our share of criticism over that debate, format and content included, but we know the debate existed.
On a lighter note, both promos appear to have the same coverage of ice falling from an iceberg.
videos credit: Liberal Party of Canada; Conservative Party of Canada (3); Unifor; Petro Canada; Elections Canada (2); CBC; CBC News; CTV News
photo credit: Elections Canada
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