Signs of an election campaign

Lawn signs. They’re the foundation of election campaigns. 

Even if you don’t watch TV or imbibe the Internet, you can’t escape those obtrusive lawn signs. 

Last election we had an extra-large one next door – so big that it required fence posts to hold it up. Every day I was exposed to the mega-sized name of a candidate I didn’t plan to vote for. Although it didn’t change my vote, by election day I'm sure he was my second choice. 

Lawn signs are intended to sway the least interested voter. They’re for the person who comes to the voting booth thinking, “Now whose name looks the most familiar?” 

While lawn signs are the foundation, slogans are the windows into a campaign. Summing up a party’s platform in a few words is an art, revealing a party’s reason for existence. 

“Yes We Can” became a rallying cry for Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign. “Make American Great Again” was Mr. Trump's unoriginal but powerful retake of past Republican slogans.  

Our Canadian party slogans aren’t quite as grand, but they still hold meaning. They’re also eerily similar to one another. “Choose Forward,” the Liberal slogan, sounds a lot like the Green’s: “Not left. Not right. Forward together.” The Conservatives are also forward-looking: “It’s Time for You to Get Ahead” (emphasis on you) while the NDP keep it simple: “In it For You” (again, emphasis on you).  

I would assume the Conservative you is a little more upper-middle class than the NDP you, but in any case, I’m glad they’ve both made this election about me. The Liberals and Greens are both moving forward, which is also positive. I would hate for a government to move backwards, although it’s entirely possible. 

 Which brings us to Mr. Bernier’s People’s Party... His slogan at least tries something different: “Strong and Free.” If I were completely ignorant of his party’s xenophobic tendencies, I might even like it. 

All these slogans have found their way into ads and pamphlets distributed by each party. When that happens, we start to associate a message with a face – the campaign’s curb appeal, if you will. 

As crass as it sounds, there’s a lot riding on a candidate’s face. It has to be attractive and trustworthy. Don’t grow facial hair (see hard lesson learned by Thomas Mulcair) and don’t wear a hat, as both make it look like you’re trying to hide something. Through no fault of his own, Mr. Singh faces a double-whammy. We have only to look at Quebec’s draconian Bill 21 to see how suspicious the public can be of head coverings. 

Problems with appearance are not insurmountable, but an attractive candidate is still every political party's dream. There's a reason Mr. Trudeau became the golden boy of liberal democracy (pre-SNC-Lavalin affair/pre-blackface saga), his brown flocks of hair adorning every popular magazine in America. And Mr. Scheer’s dimples helped vault him to the top, giving him the boyhood innocence needed to tone down the Harper Conservative brand. 

The leader’s face, in our superficial, digital world, reflects the pride in our country. One can’t over-state its importance in a campaign. Along with the party slogan. And the lawn signs.  

Oh, and the policies... 

But we’ll leave those for another time.

We're all racists, recovering or not

We don’t like to admit it, but racism is alive and well in Canada. 

When the prime minister of Canada is caught in photos wearing brown- and blackface makeup, the issue gets attention. 

Few believe he had any ill-intent, but at the very least, it displayed his deep-rooted ignorance at the time. 

In fact, it revealed a lack of understanding in many of us. I only learned about the underlying issues of wearing blackface recently. I thought it was an American problem specific to the African-American experience. In part, this is true, but as I’ve learned it’s much bigger (again, forgive my ignorance). 

We could probably all find moments in our past where we exhibited racist behaviour. It may not have been blatant but would be embarrassing if caught on camera today. In high school I recall acting as stereotypical ethnic minorities in skits. I meant no ill-intent, but would never do it now. 

It’s those public events that are the most damning, as Justin Trudeau would attest. But what about those private acts of racism? The subtle ones that never get revealed? 

What about those times we’ve walked on the other side of the street to avoid a certain person? Or passed up a candidate for a job or public office because they weren’t quite like us? 

These actions speak to the systemic racism in our society and are far more insidious. Racism gains its power through the control of institutions, and for the longest time in history, it’s been controlled by whites. There’s a reason why visible minorities can feel like they’re fighting an uphill battle. 

 It’s probably true that for every inaction as a white person, I need to make up for it with a positive action to combat years of racist history. But I would argue we should be evaluated for the positive change we make today.  

Trudeau is not faultless, but I would be hard-pressed to say his policies and actions as prime minister reflected that of a racist. Opening the doors to Syrian refugees is but one positive example. 

Racist tendencies in today’s political leaders are easily identified. They involve travel bans on “Muslim countries,” calling Mexican migrants “criminals" and "rapists,” and the list goes on. 

In Quebec, racist legislation can be found in Bill 21, where Premier François Legault has fed his population a strong dose of discrimination by banning religious symbols in the public sector. This law targets Muslim women and Sikhs, in particular, who can no longer wear head coverings at their place of work. 

Trudeau has been one of the most vocal candidates to condemn Quebec’s new law, although he should commit to do more. Andrew Scheer has taken a quieter tact, hoping to gain votes where they’ve been hard to come by in the past.  

So what’s worse? Remaining quiet or speaking up?  

One could argue that failing to speak up against racism is the same as supporting it (and we’ve all done it). 

But remaining silent is not newsworthy. It doesn’t have the same impact as a picture or a video, and it won’t give the media days of discussion as they fan over the foolishness of past sins. 

Not that Trudeau’s past sins aren’t important. But they should be viewed in perspective.

Ads becoming an online distraction

My daughter is enticed by commercials. No matter the content. 

Like that Coors Light ad she keeps reminding me of. Yes, my sweet, sober 12-year-old daughter is already entranced by a beer commercial. “The mountains are calling,” she repeats to me, referring to the moment where two women get “called” from their yoga session to partake in some cold ones. The campaign is clearly designed to appeal to women, and possibly young girls. Namaste. 

Unlike my daughter, I don’t usually find ads amusing. Unless it’s an original Super Bowl ad, which are also often duds, I don’t want to see them more than once.  

Back when we had cable with PVR (back in the olden days), there was an easy way to avoid the commercials. Simply record the show ahead of time and then skip the ads. I could get through a football game in 45 minutes! 

Now I’m bombarded with ads through live streaming. Netflix, bless its heart, is still commercial free, but other platforms like YouTube are forcing me to watch their propaganda daily. 

The ads that pop up after my online shopping are annoying, and the videos that sneak up on my screen while I’m trying to read the news are even worse. They’re a real distraction from my Trump news hit. 

Facebook is the most diabolical, showing ads that reflect my personal preferences. This targeted advertising is intended to sway me in ways far more sophisticated than through any other media. It’s how elections can be won and lost (see 2016 US election). 

Lest we think we're not persuadable, one has only to look at the impact of advertising on cigarettes. Marlboro embraced a tough, rugged cowboy to become a leader in the industry, and Camel, interestingly, embraced a fashionable four-legged animal with a hump. I only mention Camel because as a teenager I vividly remember the ads in my car magazines: a swanky camel wearing a leather jacket with a cigarette hanging from his lips. His motorbike sat idly in the background (I have no idea how he would ride it), making him the coolest camel I’d ever seen. Thankfully I never took up the habit, but if I had, I’m sure I’d be smoking Camels. 

Ads get us to consume things we don’t want, don’t need, and, in the case of cigarettes, that can kill us. Yet they’re so ubiquitous in our society that we no longer question their value. Unless you’re my wife, who grew up in the commercial-free USSR (not propaganda free, but commercial free), we’ve never known anything different. 

Advertising speaks to our capitalist society, but does capitalism really require advertising to thrive? On the contrary, perhaps it hinders. 

 Those companies with the deepest pockets, with the money to advertise, typically hold the upper hand. It promotes monopolies as opposed to free competition. It’s not good for the consumer because we ultimately pay for the advertising when we buy the products. Ever bought no-name batteries and felt completely satisfied with your purchase? 

More importantly, advertising damages our democracy. Negative campaign ads taint our views of politicians and only add to our polarized views. Big donors and third-party organizations have too much influence, pushing single issues that may not be in the public’s interest. And those who are particularly strategic in swaying an election, like Russia was in 2016, don’t need to spend much money at all. 

How to end advertising in today’s digital world would be difficult, but not impossible. Wikipedia has somehow managed to get by without any corporate sponsorship, but it’s an anomaly. Consumers/citizens would have to step up to the plate. We’d have to pay higher subscription rates, donate more to non-profit organizations, encourage government subsidies, and maybe even pay more in taxes.

Hmm, on second thought... I think the mountains are calling.