Paul Wells’ latest piece in Macleans (Generation Harper ) is one for CPC supporters to savour. It seems that Stephen Harper is outperforming Stephane Dion in the race to resonate with the under-40 ‘wellsprings of new voter support’. This according to Frank Graves of Ekos research. Also, there is the beginning of a trend among Canadians to self-identify as conservative over liberal:
...Graves identified two big trends emerging. One is a steady, marked shift in Canadians’ political identification from liberal to conservative. That’s obviously bad news for the federal Liberals. The other trend looks less menacing: the emergence of two broad cohorts of under-40 voters, one broadly left-leaning, the other more conservative. Since they’re about the same size they should more or less balance out. Except both of these groups of younger voters have their own generational quirks, and so far Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have had better luck reaching out to "their" young voters than the post-Paul Martin Liberals have to "theirs."
Please read the whole article and feel free to comment below. Conservative readers may wish to relax with an accompanying glass of Merlot.
For my Liberal readers, I would recommend a bottle of Tums.
The Young Conservatives I’ve been meeting are just fed up with the hipster/hippy wanna bees and the lecturing finger wagging of the Pee Cee crowd.
Say a prayer for sanity. It may not be lost forever…..
Harper is the first post-boomer PM so it makes sense that he’d appeal to them.
The Liberals had the misfortune to pick a leader who although is the same age as Harper, gives the appearance of a frail old man or a stern professor who doesn’t understand “kids these days”.
Cool Blue – Exactly. I had no idea that Dion was younger than Iggy and Rae. I thought he was way older.
I am 28 and all I have to say is, Harper rocks. Good Read.
I like when wells writes about this stuff. I also liked when he talked about Muttart and the targeting of main street in his book “Right Side Up”(amazing read).
Blue Magic, that is so good to hear. I just thought all the young people were very Liberal or NDP.
Hope you have friends that are thinking just like you.
It’s interesting to note that Alberta has the youngest population in Canada, we are attracting young families here, and how are they voting? Judging by the provincial elections we just had, Conservative. Toronto votes Liberal where you have more single, latte drinking “progressives”. How do the Liberals grow their party? They have the universities wrapped up already, they have the immigrant vote already, so they have no growth room.
The Conservatives have all those suburbs and families, the middle class votes to tap into, lots of growth there.
I have a teenage niece who is a huge Harper fan and did some canvassing with my daughter and I in the last election. I hope she runs as a candidate someday. She would be awesome.
Dion is the same age as Harper? I thought he was much older.
Anyway this article makes sense to me; I’m 21 and a Harper fan
That’s awesome, May!! Perhaps you could consider becoming a party member someday.
Joanne:
I have considered it, but I have to say the outreach sucks. I emailed them trying to volunteer a couple times and got no response. I figure if I get nowhere volunteering then why should I become a member when the result could be the same? I live in Dartmouth and work in Halifax so as a Nova Scotian I’m in liberaltown. As such I’m a little hesitant to come out of the closet and I figure once you are card carrying everyone will completely discount your opinion. On the other hand, this is what I believe, and honestly some people discount my opinion no matter what. I guess I’m afraid people will judge me without knowing me but I have to get over that at some point. The jury is still out for me on a more active political involvement. I just wish someone had gotten back to me.
Actually I liked politics before I was old enough to vote. In 2004 Paul Martin dropped the writ and the election happened 2 months before my 18th birthday. I was so mad.
I emailed them trying to volunteer a couple times and got no response.
May, that is so sad. Somebody really dropped the ball there. Unfortunately not all campaign offices run smoothly – no matter which party is involved.
I would suggest actually calling the office next time, if you’re inclined to offer your services again. I guarantee they would be happy for the help. Just a lack of communications that one time, I suspect. You could try contacting the candidate directly. That might be the best route.
But of course, only if you’re interested in trying again.
In 2004 Paul Martin dropped the writ and the election happened 2 months before my 18th birthday. I was so mad.
You sound like my niece! lol!
For May and anyone else who would like to volunteer for your local riding EDA is contact information on the Elections Canada website. This is how I got in touch with my local EDA when I moved. The phone number for Dartmouth-Coal Harbour is 422-0102. There are several other contacts if that one doesn’t work. And is everybody sitting down, because the riding president is(gasp) a female! Either that or Johnny Cash’s song should have been titled “A boy named Linda.” Look at the amazing things that can happen, and Harper didn’t have to appoint her to fill out some quota.
Many EDAs will be holding their annual meetings before the summer. This is a chance for enthusiastic supporters to get involved by becoming members of the BOD. Also coming up is the election of the delegates to the National Convention in Winnipeg in the middle of November. All EDA boards can have 10% of their members from out of the riding. So if for some reason you don’t want to be a board member of your own riding you can volunteer in another riding, or join both. I did a poll by poll analysis of the results of the 2006 verses the 2004 election in Joanne’s riding. While the conventional wisdom is that the local campaign can make a 10% difference, the results of my analysis convinced me that the true figure is probably closer to 20%. You can make a difference!
Re the young liking PMSH over Dion. What have many of the young just finished-school. Who does Dion remind them of, probably the professor or teacher they were not fond of and who gave them a failing grade.
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