Douglas Todd, in the Vancouver Sun: The attack ads the Conservative Party of Canada launched during this fall's election campaign not only convinced some declared Liberals not to vote for their party, even more Canadians turned off entirely from voting. Officials from Angus Reid Strategies revealed polling results...
Discussing the ethical implications of negative political advertising, Grenville argued his company's poll shows this year's hard-hitting Conservative ads were part of a disturbing trend that is "poisoning the well" of Canadian politics. "Attack ads can often work in the short term. They can give you a short boost. But they reduce the number of people who want to vote. They reduce participation in the democratic process. They poison the system." ...
The Conservative Party of Canada benefited from a low voter turnout on October 14, the pollsters said... Many supporters of Canada's centre-left parties tend to be more idealistic than Conservatives. Idealists, people who dream of a better world, are prone to drop out of the electoral process if they believe that it has become corrupt or unethical... The most common words those surveyed associated with the TV ads were "disgust," "lies," "unethical" and "unCanadian." ...
Maintaining that almost two decades of vicious political attack ads in the U.S. have made a "farce" of democracy and voter turnout south of the border, Grenville said he hopes Canadians find a way to counteract negative campaigning... "It's up to the people of Canada to say they're sick of this... to say they're sick of being misled and lied to and having politics driven down into the mud."... The Conservatives are unlikely to take a less nasty approach in their advertising when the Liberals elect their next national party leader. "They're probably preparing their attack ads right now."
