Elections are far different in Canada and the U.S. It's all fascinating to me. Yes, I understand that politics and differences among countries, blah blah blah, are not interesting topics to other people. But the advertising in particular is just such a different animal than the political advertising machine is in the U.S. that I can't resist writing about it.
In fact, the Canadian system is a real relief to anyone who's sick of the U.S. political schedule. Here's what's wrong (one thing, anyway) in the U.S. In an early episode of the last season of The West Wing, the VP candidate tells the presidential candidate that elected presidents have 18 months to govern. Then come the mid-term elections and after that, he'll be running for re-election. So much for a four-year term.
When I was on my way to Oklahoma in August, I happened to need a motel room in Des Moines on the night of a double whammy. Not only was it the State Fair, it was also the night of a straw poll evaluating the chances of various Republican candidates for President. Needless to say, I pushed an hour south before finding a room and then paying double for it.
But those poor Americans--fifteen months before the 2008 election and a full year before the nominating convention, five to six months before the earliest primaries, and they're doing Tarot Card readings about Republican candidates. Americans are forced into semi-serious conversations about whether some guy--yes, all the Republican candidates are guys--"looks Presidential." Sheesh.
Ontario is having a provincial election. It's just a few weeks off. The campaign, if you will--the time between the call for election and the actual voting day--is about six weeks, total. (The election cycle must be at least 36 days; the longest ever has been 74 days, according to Wikipedia.)
That's just six weeks to endure ads for each party, plus ads that generally encourage people to vote. Party leaders still have plenty of time to get themselves in trouble--the Progressive-Conservative leader is catching a lot of flak for his idea to give public school funding to private religious schools--but the voter fatigue doesn't accumulate in the same way it does in the U.S. It doesn't have a chance.
The issues that ads highlight tend to be recent--one of the larger opposition parties lists, like, nine different things the current government "did wrong" in the last session. One of their hot buttons from last spring is the $40,000 pay raise that the members of parliament (their equivalent of the House of Representatives) voted for themselves, while ignoring a bill to raise minimum wage from $8 to $10 an hour. Health care--along with statistics that show it's excellent or that it's horrible--is an ongoing issue, because the province of Ontario is responsible for managing health care for its citizens.
The advertising itself isn't remarkable. Ads show people saying "the current government is great," or "the current government broke its promises." However, the whole process is wonderful because. It. Is. So. Short!!
This election was originally scheduled for October 4, but it was changed to accommodate a Jewish holiday. By October 10, it will all be over. And so will the advertising. What a system. Ya gotta love it.
