book review BOOK REVIEW als watched, lacking the resources — or the on-the-ground intelligence — to ef- fectively counterattack. That’s not marketing Harper’s success has led all party o good book on politics is com- leaders to position themselves as Nplete without a little gossip about backstage nastiness on a personal level. friends of the middle class. Wells does not disappoint. From the Susan Delacourt, Shopping for Votes: fallout between Harper and Tom Fla- nagan after publication of Flanagan’s How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them book Harper’s Team to a variety of (Douglas and McIntyre, 2013). quotes about Dion and Ignatieff from Conservative successes, Wells also argues al of the direct taxpayer subsidy to pol- frustrated Liberal insiders, The Longer Review by Jaime Watt and Will Stewart that the bad patches have frequently itical parties based on House of Com- I’m Prime Minister delivers the inside been, and continue to be, of his own mons representation was a final nail stuff on politics that are, as I can attest, making. While this may be true, I felt the in the coffin of old-time, deep-pocket all too real and familiar. depth and experience of the Prime Min- fundraising. But the book’s value is in its por- ister’s political staff was variable. There Meanwhile the Reform, Alliance and trayal of Harper that gets beyond the were times it felt like some decisions were Conservative machines were built on caricatures. Wells sees the Prime Minister the product of too much like-minded a party bedrock of small contributions as a shrewd tactician with unusual skill, partisanship, with insufficient challenge from individual supporters. Monitoring discipline and focus on winning, a sur- from other, more balanced voices. Harper this support, virtually in real time, be- vivor against long odds. He is credited does stick to his positions through thick came a valuable way of gauging the pol- with shifting the framework of political and thin, so getting the initial decision itical mood of the party base. The Con- discussion from an elitist one in which right is critical. servative machine is adept at identifying, the Liberals were seen as the natural gov- But the book is also an excellent measuring and probing its potential sup- erning party, almost synonymous with play-by-play chronicle of the last sev- port base. The work of people like Patrick Canada and the flag, to one that focus- re you a Tim Hortons Canadian than a vision of consumers to be ma- Party from the mid-’60s to mid-’80s, en years in Canadian politics, from the Muttart, the PM’s go-to person on pol- es on middle-class Canadians and the or a Starbucks drinker? Do you nipulated. to the emergence of the Conserva- inside of election campaigns to the per- itical pulse taking and positioning, was issues that touch them where they live. Asee yourself as a voter, a con- It is a terrific look behind the tive Big Blue Machine in Ontario that petual political warfare now waged in be- deep and granular. Imitation is flattery. Today, all oppos- sumer or a taxpayer? Where do you curtain at how political parties now found its own marketing gurus in Dal- tween. Wells takes us into town hall meet- The knowledge base helped the Con- ition leaders are positioning themselves land in the Phineas T. Barnum versus operate and sell themselves. Dela- ton Camp and Norman Atkins. Every ings and events where a few moments of servatives identify their potential appeal as friends of the middle class, working John Powers debate? Does your lifestyle court is not merely focused on how technological advance or new theory passion by party leaders would have the to ethnic communities, seeing opportun- Canadians, busily reshaping their party make you a “Zoe” or a “Dougie”? present-day politics employ the tools on how to get inside voters’ heads crowds on their feet. Then he shows how ities in shared family, social and econom- political machinery to win them over. This is the grammar of modern of marketing. She tells us how we got has precipitated a generational strug- fervour in a crowded, partisan room can ic values. It was then that Jason Kenney Wells does not project whether marketing and advertising, and Su- here, taking us through the evolution gle within the parties themselves, look strange and disconnected from real- became the hyperactive politician, bond- Harper can win again. Readers look- san Delacourt tells us that the master- of how marketing has found its way pitting an old guard distrustful of ity to large swaths of Canadians viewing ing with these communities on behalf of ing for a bead on likely outcomes in minds of Canadian political parties to the very heart of Canadian politics. new techniques against the younger it through clips on the evening news. the Conservatives. Kenney was tireless the next election will get only a good care more about which category to Shopping for Votes fittingly starts in evangelists of new possibilities (well and he was everywhere, making Can- understanding of potential fault lines slot us into than about how we see the years following the Second World chronicled in Delacourt’s portrait of ells also leaves us with some adians of Chinese, Indian, Filipino and and not much more. But Wells has the issues of the day. Or apparently War: Delacourt cites Mackenzie King Allan Gregg’s disruption of the fed- Wtakeaways about the shifting Jewish origin a significant part of the given us an early indication of how we that’s how the most successful parties as being the first to micro-target votes eral Conservatives’ operation). And landscape of Canadian politics. Conservatives’ political base. may remember the Harper years. By operate. In Shopping for Votes: How Pol- with the introduction of the baby it leads eventually to the two young For one thing, we are seeing the re- As Wells notes, this modernization refusing to bow to the conventional iticians Choose Us and We Choose Them, bonus system. stars of the current Conservative gov- sults of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s of the Conservative organization has Ottawa consensus, this prime minister Delacourt draws from her years of daily She then maps the rise in the ernment, Stephen Harper and Jason move to limit political contributions changed the way Canadian politics is has brought a degree of harmony to the reporting on Canada’s politicians and consumer culture against the track Kenney, who she says have married and Harper’s further restricting of tax- done, making it faster, more micro in its federation. Today, western Canadians their advisers to argue that consumer records of successful political parties, a sophisticated — and to Delacourt payer support, which has tilted the field outlook and too easily distracted by the are less angry and frustrated than has marketing has infiltrated our politics, from the role of Toronto ad men like an overly cynical — understanding of strongly in the Conservatives’ favour. need for constant political messaging. been the case through much of our his- turning democracy’s once-lofty regard Martin Goldfarb and Keith Davey in political marketing to the raw power The traditional Liberal fundraising base But the superiority and sophistication of tory. They feel more a part of the gov- for the electorate into nothing more the dominance of the federal Liberal of Reform’s western populism. was heavily corporate, while the NDP the Conservative fundraising machine ernance of Canada in both the public relied more heavily on union support. was a key enabler for party operatives and private sectors. While east and west elacourt sees a link between de- Both were weakened by these elector- busily crafting their devilishly effective will always display shades of difference, Dclining voter engagement and al funding reforms that sharply limited media buys. The ads would effectively those are less stark today than at any this rise in the marketing world’s the eligible contributions of unions, destroy the brands of both Stéphane time I can recall. Paul Wells has gone a Jaime Watt is the executive chairman of Navigator Ltd. and a principal at Ensight penetration of politics. Her thesis sets companies and individuals. The remov- Dion and Michael Ignatieff as the Liber- way to helping us understand why. n Canada. Will Stewart is a principal of both Navigator Ltd. and Ensight Canada. up a chicken-and-egg debate for the

64 OPTIONS POLITIQUES POLICY OPTIONS 65 NOVEMBRE-DÉCEMBRE 2013 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013 book review BOOK REVIEW

reader: Has the growth of marketing This is not semantics. In practice, the turning what were once seen as atom- launches, and with so many messa- techniques led to a backlash and dis- difference is critical. Without question ized voters into a constituency. ges muddling our daily lives, is it any gust with politics that drives down the current public affairs practitioner has The gum marketer is trying to sell wonder that political advertising has voter turnout? Or have voters, disillu- learned from the marketer, employing more gum to a series of people in a ter- to jump up and smack the viewer? This sioned by what politics has delivered, some of the same tools of the trade, such ritory. The public affairs practitioner isn’t a defence of the morality of nega- distracted by cheap entertainment or as focus groups. But the actions of the is building a virtual territory for gum tive advertising. But as Delacourt cor- too busy to care, simply made market- modern political machine are different chewers to congregate in. rectly points out, the appropriate ques- ing more important to parties strug- and more precise than those of market- The big difference between market- tion is not whether the voter likes an gling to capture what’s left? ing. While marketers and public affairs ing and public affairs is that marketers ad, but rather what message they take Delacourt pulls her reader in all dir- professionals would both use a screwdriv- typically deal in messages that can be away from it. ections on this debate until the dying er, the marketers would use a flathead and challenged. Hence they push lines like Delacourt is bang on when she Photo: shutterstock pages of the book, when she sides with the public affairs professionals, a Phillips. “Big Macs are better than Whoppers ascribes our short attention spans to a those who blame marketing for our because our beef is better.” Or “Whop- rapid, media-driven consumption cul- democratic woes. To make her argu- s public affairs practitioners (dis- pers are better than Big Macs because ture. Perhaps more people would be ment, she singles out the approach of Aclosure: our company once em- our beef is fresher and antibiotic free.” interested in politics and would there- Harper’s Conservatives and their focus ployed Patrick Muttart), we tend to But public affairs practitioners are try- fore vote more if they weren’t so ob- on reaching the crucial 10 percent of shun the marketing approach that dir- ing not simply to change voter choice sessed by buying stuff. But she fails to the population that can be encouraged ects its messages where the masses are. within a category, but to destroy the examine whether our embarrassingly to turn out to vote but that doesn’t fol- Rather than trying to convert the mass- whole category itself. The public affairs low election turnouts would be even low the news and may therefore be less es, we focus on finding and engaging approach is to say, “Eating beef will kill worse if political parties did not use familiar with issues. This is where mar- like-minded people. you.” Or, as the Liberals found out, “He these techniques to reach people the keting becomes vital, she writes. This If voters can be placed along bell didn’t come back for you.” way they want to be reached. The mass minority of Canadians that can hold the curves, the middle bulge is where For this reason, political opera- appeal strategies of old targeted a mas- key to winning elections is best reached those who are undecided, ambivalent tives focus on motivation over choice. sive middle ground of voters who now through blunt pitches via television ad- or disengaged reside. But public affairs Using focus groups (a tool admitted- consistently say they are indifferent to vertising or direct mail. practitioners are interested in the ad- To make her point, Delacourt cites mittedly fewer people who fall at each the work of Patrick Muttart, a former end of the spectrum: let’s call them With so many messages deputy chief of staff to Harper who the ones on both edges of the curve brought new political techniques to those who are “with you” or “against muddling our daily lives, is chase votes from this unsophisticated you.” In politics, this is where the it any wonder that political electorate. “What are you supposed action is. Public affairs professionals to do when you are down to the final and political parties home in on those advertising has to jump up and weeks of the campaign and you are in the “with you” band, using many of smack the viewer? competing for the attention of the least the same tools as marketers but with a informed, the least engaged and the message aimed at trying to get them least intense voters who are going to to exercise that vote. To the public af- ly swiped from marketers), public politics. But social media affords polit- decide the outcome of an election cam- fairs professional, even if you have a affairs practitioners search to under- ical parties a chance to appeal directly paign?” she quotes Muttart as saying. product they want, why chase those stand what drives voters. This enables to people who, research shows, may be “This is why political marketers have to in the disengaged, stay-at-home mid- them to choose words, either for or open to a pitch on the issues. be so blunt and so direct.” dle who are not going to vote? against a cause, to see what works How is the latter not serving dem- To Delacourt, this is the wicked- Meanwhile, ever-more sophis- with the target. It may well surprise ocracy? ness of marketing as applied to politics, ticated voter tracking and the rise of readers of Shopping for Votes to learn Mackenzie King knew that. He a sign of the sickness of our democracy. social media have revolutionized how that the Conservatives did not even looked for needs within that segment If only politics had not descended to we can reach these groups. Swaths of bother with national polls after 2005 of the population he needed to win such gutter tactics, she argues, voters data about voters and their preferences, but rather just looked at their target- power, those soldiers coming home would not be turned off and would still previously too expensive to collect and ed constituencies and regular focus and factory women now out of work, be showing up at the polls to vote. analyze, are now available. With this group sessions on the intangible plane and served them with the baby bonus. Her attack betrays a fundamen- information, micro-targeting becomes of emotions and values. (This tidbit They responded by giving him their tal misunderstanding of how political possible. Technology connects people, comes to Delacourt from Muttart, vote. What King understood then, parties communicate with the public. and we are able to identify and contact who, we narcissistically like to think, even without the benefits of all the What Delacourt sees — and decries — people in communities across Canada learned that approach here.) data we have at our fingertips today, is not marketing. What political parties that were once ignored or abandoned is that voters must be offered a reason undertake is, more precisely, public af- as too hard to reach. The technology ith election campaigns being to show up at the ballot box. That’s fairs communications. allows us to make cloth out of thread, Wshort compared with product not marketing. That’s politics. n

66 OPTIONS POLITIQUES POLICY OPTIONS 67 NOVEMBRE-DÉCEMBRE 2013 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013