Revolutionary Moderation

I wonder when the parties will go negative during the campaign?



Hey, how about "before the writ is dropped"?



The Middleman (first, but many since) pointed me to this pair of sites. The first is the collection of negative ads produced by the Liberals that I discussed back here. The second is the Conservative responses, pretty much as predicted ("You know, the Martinites aren't so hot on these issues, either").



A late June election will keep some people away from the polls. The cynicism that stems from the parties going negative also keeps people away from the polls. I don't know who will win this election, but I'm more confident every day that no party will capture as many votes as the number of ballots that will simply not be cast.



On the bright side (from an NDP perspective), having the Liberals and Conservatives noting that the other party is not in line with the thinking of many Canadians on issues like health care and Iraq might convince some voters to look elsewhere. Of course, in James Bow's case, that means talking Green Party, but I'm sure the NDP will pick up a few votes as well, here and there.