Your Political Satisfaction Guaranteed!
by S. Cosburn Mortimer,
research director of the Bankers' Alliance for Responsible Freedom
When Jason Capodimonte told me the subject of the feature article he wrote for us last week, I looked forward to reading another of the incisive analyses so typical of Jason.
The subject of the article was the development of democratic politics as a form of advertising. You can imagine my surprise when, on reading the article, I discovered that Jason considered this development to be undesirable!
Jason actually thinks that an "election of ideas" is superior to the carefully tailored advertising campaigns which our election campaigns have become! He needs to take a close look at the "ideas" which define Canadian politics.
Here is a complete list of the definitive ideas of Canadian politics:
These "ideas" are simply expressions of interest, and any election based on these ideas is unlikely to be a landmark in intellectual history.
- Conservatism: We have lots of property and we want to keep all of it, plus whatever else we can get our hands on.
- Liberalism: We too have property and we too intend to keep it, but we also want the people who don't have any property to like us.
- NDPism: Can't we all just get along?
- Sovereignism: Where's that notwithstanding clause?
So what do people normally do when they want to promote their own interests? That's right – they advertise!
And what's so bad about advertising? There's more information in the average infomercial by Ron Popeil than in an entire Canadian election campaign. If any of the Canadian political parties were trying to get you to buy a Showtime Rotisserie, their commercials would sound something like "Want to eat better? Then buy one of these rotisseries we got."
For that is about the entire content of a Canadian political commercial. We'll get "better" health care, "better" pensions, and. of course, lower taxes. No details are provided about how the new government's program will work. In contrast, once you've watched Ron Popeil for half an hour, you know everything you could possibly want to know about the Showtime Rotisserie! And that means you are then prepared to make an informed decision about whether you want a Showtime Rotisserie or not.
Of course, not all commercials are infomercials, and often they use means of getting your attention that may at first glance seem less admirable than Mr. Popeil's informative presentations. But is there anything inherently worse, for example, in having the vague promises of the Liberal Party of Canada whispered to you by a pouty buxom spokesmodel than in having them parroted by a tired-looking, shirtsleeved Paul Martin in a voice which is reminiscent of fingernails scratching a chalkboard? They're still the same promises, only now you're paying attention to them. And once you pay attention to them, you start to notice how vague they are.
Strangely, so far the party with the best understanding of commercials is the NDP. As Jason noted, they've been watching their Docker commercials. If Jack Layton would replace his tan suits with something more dignified the NDP would actually have a chance to get somewhere.
Advertising offers other benefits that a campaign of ideas does not. When, for example, was the last time a campaign of ideas offered you a money-back guarantee? Two for the price of one? A mail-in rebate? 0% interest OAC? No payments till 2006?
Yes, as the advertising model takes over election campaigns, electoral consumers will start expecting political advertisers to act as generously as other advertisers. In particulr, they will demand some type of incentive before handing over their precious vote to one of the political parties. And that will be better than what happens now.
According to the election of ideas model, the electoral consumer listens to the political parties' ideas, debates them with other concerned consumers, then hands over his vote absolutely free to one of the local candidates! Free!
Let's see – the successful candidate gets a well-paid job, a lavish pension plan, and all the action he/she can handle. And what are the people who elected him/her guaranteed in return? As Jason pointed out last week, they are legally entitled to...nothing! The Elections Act absolves members of parliament of any duty to deliver the goods they promised. Where Burger King advertising sells you Whoppers, political advertising tells you whoppers.
Where Jason went wrong is in thinking of advertising as a matter of promises. That also is how contemporary politicians think of it, but as electoral consumers start to demand the same benefits from political advertising that they get from non-political advertising, politicians will learn that advertising is not about promises but about products.
Consumers will no longer be content with vague promises which always end up being transformed into something they had no intention of buying – health care premiums, "social contracts," Goods and Service Taxes – or into shoddy goods which come with no warranty – sorry, physiotherapy is no longer included as standard equipment.
Like Jason, I agree that consumer protections need to be extended to the political marketplace. However, I do not believe, as he does, that they will lead us into an era of idea-based campaigning, nor, for reasons I have made clear above, do I believe that is a desirable goal. What political advertising with consumer protection will give us is the chance to get something for our political dollar for a change. Yes, bad products can be advertised as easily as good ones, but I have yet to see any private company advertise a gun registry.
June 11, 2004
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