Effective political ads use emotion and a mix of powerful images, words and music to deliver the campaign’s message. In some cases, they are designed to introduce a candidate that many voters are getting to know for the first time. Other times, ads are meant to drive home the record and best attributes of a … Read more

It was one of those moments in news and politics where you just knew something was going to be a big deal from the get-go. I’m talking about the original September 18th tweet from Time Magazine revealing that they had a photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing blackface at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” themed … Read more

Here we go again – another federal election. Is it fair to say the battleground is a little more virtual than in year’s past? Though many consider Prime Minister Trudeau’s 2015 election as the digital catalyst of Canadian politics, I would argue we haven’t quite hit our stride yet. Social media is a must-have communications … Read more

With the federal election less than just a month away, the Liberal Party and its Leader are still in the tail-end of damage control mode as they deal with the fallout from multiple photos of Trudeau in both, brownface and blackface. For any campaign, trying to change the channel to move the election back to … Read more

Election campaigns occasionally have memorable turning points – the Stanfield fumble, the Mulroney “You had an option, sir” knock out debate punch are two Canadian examples that are thought to have been instrumental in determining election outcomes. In the 2016 U.S. election, candidate Donald Trump faced numerous inflection points which should have ended his race … Read more

Campaigns spend considerable energy recruiting star candidates to run in elections. They are generally people with a relatively high profile at any level of public life. The parties search for municipal councilors, sports figures, journalists, local personalities, business leaders, military leaders, indigenous leaders, women leaders, racialized leaders and other recognizable, credible people to place prominently … Read more

The #43 federal election is well underway. The Liberal and Conservative party leaders have traveled the country with their national tour, posting to their social feeds and targeting identified supporters. Local candidates are busy with their respective campaigns in generating a ground game to mobilize supporters. Against this backdrop public opinion polls, including that undertaken … Read more

As the CEO of a public relations and public affairs company, I’ve spent a lot of time creating slogans and brand statements. At this early stage of the campaign, then, I thought I might offer a quick assessment of the various campaign slogans in play – recognizing that the events of the campaign and the … Read more