As I wrote recently, the leftist “Golden Trio” of Jacinda Ardern, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau have all been lumbered with feet of clay. By calling a general election for Canada in October, Trudeau will be the first of the three to face the judgement of voters.
Trudeau has been looking down the barrel of electoral defeat as his popularity plunges in the wake of repeated scandals, from his idiotic proclivity for playing dress-ups in foreign countries to the far more deadly SNC-Lavalin scandal. But Trudeau’s Liberals are making sure that money and electoral propriety are no object to keeping his well-manicured hands on the reins of power.
Recent election laws introduced by the Liberals have put a hamper on the amount of campaigning federal parties could do during the pre-writ period.
The laws put a limit on the amount of money spent on advertising and restricted third-party advertising activity, among other changes.
The so-called “Election Modernization Act” virtually ensured that the only party able to sway voters during the pre-writ period would be the governing Liberals, through gross and extravagent spending announcements.
This is the kind of dodgy, gerrymandering-like stuff that John Howard repeatedly used to his advantage. By dropping big-spending announcements before the actual declaration of an election, the Howard government was able to gussy up obvious campaign spruiking as “government advertising”. They weren’t promoting the Coalition, you see, they were providing a public information service.
Will this legalised cheating pay off for the tarnished golden boy?
While the other federal leaders waited patiently at the starting line, the Liberals were running laps around Canada throwing money in every direction.
Only last week, the Liberals announced over $2.4 billion in new spending commitments over only four days.
How much did the Liberals spend in August? They made a whopping $12.8 billion in new commitments. Not only was the spending extravagant, but it was also clearly targeted at contested ridings, and meant to benefit the chances a Liberal candidate or incumbent gets elected.
Since the other parties are limited by the new act to spend a maximum of two million dollars in advertising during the pre-writ period, the governing Liberals had free reign to play with billions of taxpayer dollars. That’s billions of dollars in local and national spending announcements which effectively served as free advertising.
Unless you’re Clive Palmer, throwing out piles of cash can’t help but deliver results.
As far as polls are showing, gaming the system in this way seems to have worked for the Liberals. According to polling aggregator, 338Canada the Liberals have mostly recovered from the hit in their popularity caused by the SNC-Lavalin scandal. Currently, the Liberals are sitting at a lead over the once-dominant Conservatives, with polls predicting that they will win the most seats in October.
Of course this puts the other parties at a several-billion-dollar disadvantage going into the writ. However, it’s not all rain and clouds for the competing Conservatives who have accumulated a war chest of over $24 million in funding, dwarfing the Liberal’s $15.9 million.
thepostmillennial.com/the-election-is-here-but-the-liberals-have-a-head-start/
The Conservatives are already targeting Trudeau as an out-of-touch elite. If they can hammer home the message that the government is blowing billions, at a time when Canada’s economy is tanking, in order to keep a pampered pretty-boy in the manner to which he is entitled, the Liberals’ profligate dishonesty may come back to bite them.
Trudeau has also set down a remarkably short campaign, compared to the 78-day marathon last time. Which almost looks like he has something to hide.