Blue Like You

Archive for September 5th, 2007

If you live in Ontario, you’ve probably seen the ads from Working Families Coalition. Their singular purpose is to keep the Liberals in power and the Conservatives out. I’m not even sure if the NDP registers on their radar.

PC Party president Blair McCreadie formally asked chief election officer John Hollins to conduct a probe, “suggesting the organization is not independent but in effect works for the Liberal party”.

Also, there is some confusion between the WFC and the Family Coalition Party:

Family Coalition Party leader Giuseppe Gori said he learned about Working Families from press coverage of the Tories’ complaint.

“This group had applied for status as a third party and I didn’t even know at the time,” said Gori, whose socially conservative party will field 70 to 100 candidates this election.

“There’s a confusion of the names and we were very concerned … They call themselves a family coalition, but they actually stand for the opposite of what we stand for. They’re a union-type of organization.”

How long this will take to get resolved is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile, the ads continue to pummel the airwaves.

‘Working Families‘ includes the following:

* Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association
* Canadian Auto Workers
* Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation
* International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 128
* International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
* Millwrights
* International Union Of Operating Engineers Local 793
* Painters District Council 46
* Ontario Pipe Trades Council

So why do they use the moniker “Working Families Coalition” rather than some label identifying them as a labour special interest group?

Could it be that they want to play down that aspect?

McGuinty denies links, and says he’s not concerned about the “appearance created by a $1.98 million provincial grant to Local 793 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, whose president heads the coalition.”

Also probably just a coincidence that “Working Families Coalition chair Gary O’Neill is also president of Local 793, which held a 2006 Liberal fundraiser for McGuinty. The union donated more than $66,000 to the Liberals between 2003 and 2006.”

I did happen to come across an interesting tidbit from the previous election, from the Oct. 20, 2003 issue of Marketing Magazine - Marketing McGuinty.

The whole strategy from the last election is right there in black and white, and it appears that a lot of the same ploys are being resurrected. It’s a fascinating article. I highly recommend it.

The piece is an analysis of the supposed ‘positive’ campaign that proved to be a winning strategy. And every time that the opposition went negative they had a plan too:

From the outset, Liberal pit bulls like senior strategist Warren Kinsella and MPP George Smitherman went to work making sure the media noticed the Tory attacks. Convinced the Tory ads wouldn’t work, Kinsella says the team felt confident enough to release a leaked copy of the spots to journalists during one of their first press conferences of the campaign. “As the reporters were coming in, we played Peggy Lee’s ‘Is That All There Is?’, just to underline the fact that, if that’s the best they’ve got, it wasn’t going to be terribly effective.”

And here’s another bit of insight right here:

The high road aside, it should still be noted that third-party advertising, from groups such as the Working Families Coalition, served to sling mud in the Tory direction without getting the Liberals dirty in the process. “Not this time, Ernie. Not this time,” stated a voiceover in the WFC spot.

So, the ‘third-party’ Working Families Coalition did the dirty work for McGuinty so that his halo would remain untarnished.

Now why was that paragraph included in an article about winning Liberal strategy???

Why?

Two thoughts here on the Harper Government’s announcement of an Oct. 16 Throne speech, and all the incendiary swill surrounding it.

#1. Jack Layton obviously feels that at least NDP MP’s need do no work other than when sitting in Parliament.

NDP Leader Jack Layton called the decision to prorogue the session a waste of time. “Students have gone back to class. Working families are back from vacation. Why is Stephen Harper locking MPs out?” he asked in a statement.

And:

NDP Leader Jack Layton criticized Harper for “locking out” MPs when they should be hard at work.

(Star)

#2. It’s probably a good idea that Dion is demanding that the Throne Speech contain a clear message that “Canada will notify its allies in NATO that it is putting an end to the combat mission in Kandahar Afghanistan, in February 2009″.

Because our allies likely don’t pay attention.

Good move, Stephane.

Andrew Coyne in today’s Post - McGuinty’s indefensible stance on schools.

…So Mr. McGuinty, asked to respond to the Tory proposal, might have simply shrugged and said: “Not my policy.” Or, seized of the unfairness of funding one religion over others, he might have followed Quebec’s lead, and amended the Constitution to remove any reference to religious schools…

That is the elephant in the room, right there.

If you want the Working Families’, er, sorry, government side of things, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne provides it here - Doing right by Ontario’s students. Gee, I would have titled that one, Doing ‘left’…