We are approaching an election in British Columbia and the sleezy ads are already starting. What type of ads influence your vote? Are you more interested in seeing ads depicting progress or ads that just attack the opponent?
Political attack ads
- Thread starter JLM
- Start date
Local candidate I feel is VERY important. He/she is the person who MOST voters will be benefitted or hurt by as it's the small things that impact the vast majority of voters. Party policies may be important but generally those politices are on paper only- ultimately their policy is whatever gets them the biggest share at the trough. There's not much difference between the REAL party policies. But then I'm a skeptic as far as politics goes.
What I personally can not stand is the federal conservatives using political attack ads on a regular basis...no up coming election....just attack ads against the other parties. And who might you think is paying for those ads? I pretty sure that is not coming out of Stephen's front pocket that's for sure. Why should we the people be paying for his attack ads just because they are the gov't in power?
With all the bills that are passed and half of them do absolutely no good for any one. A bill should be passed that no political party should be able to use attack ads other than during election campaigns, that way, it would be the money they raised during the campaign that would be used for these ads instead of tax dollars. Plus I don't need to hear Stephen cry like a little baby about how the liberals do this or the NDP do that. My god, these are supposed to be world leaders not 3rd graders.
With all the bills that are passed and half of them do absolutely no good for any one. A bill should be passed that no political party should be able to use attack ads other than during election campaigns, that way, it would be the money they raised during the campaign that would be used for these ads instead of tax dollars. Plus I don't need to hear Stephen cry like a little baby about how the liberals do this or the NDP do that. My god, these are supposed to be world leaders not 3rd graders.
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I am swayed by attack ads. To the point that I may purposely vote for the attacked party even if I don't like them.
I received an email telling me that the fed. conservatives were experiencing attack ads by another party and would I give money to help combat these ads. I wrote a lengthy letter back telling how I felt about attack ads and how I could not financially support any party that participated in attack ads. I went on to say that attack ads are not (were not) the Canadian way and that most Canadians want governement to get on with governing rather than the childish act of attack ads by any party. JLM I know your post is in regard to provincial voting right now but it's all the same in the end regarding getting votes. I actually went on to say that I was so sick and tired of attack ads wasting time that like many others in this country, I will simply choose not to vote in any up-coming election.
About two days later, I received a phone call from a person with a different name who first wanted to up-date my information. I declined to tell him where I lived and what my postal code was. So then he actually had to admit that he already had it. Then he wanted to know if I wanted to renew my membership. I said NO. Then I explained my letter and how I felt I could not support the party who wanted to use my funds to combat attack ads. He may have been a good actor but he did sound confused about why I was receiving such mail. He said according to his information, they did not have an email address for me. He still doesn't unless that was a lie. I have not turned against the Conservatives. Personally I feel that Stephen Harper is much too involved in too many important things to be taking part in attack ads. "Helpers" can get too carried away. With the exception of possibly buying a cheap membership to a political party, they don't get any money from me. They are lucky enough to get my vote.
I'm not voting in the provincial election. I dis-like them all equally.
I like what you say, mature people want to find out what the party they vote for is going to do for them and for the province. Some of these attack ads are so poor they are sickening- like they mention 150 schools being closed but they fail to be completely honest and say how many of them had 15 kids or less and it just wasn't financially viable to keep them open, or how many of the schools didn't meet safety standards (earth quake resistant) and weren't worth the money to upgrade them. 25 years ago I belonged to the N.D.P. but soon found out they were as bad as any of the other parties and dropped my membership. I don't believe in being tied to ANY political party, as I've said a thousand times they are all tarred with the same brush, I just hold my nose and vote for the least of the evils on election day. Maybe if they were more people like you, I.P. we'd soon be rid of this nonsense.
Political attack ads serve a purpose but can backfire..
If they tell the truth they bring forth facts. Albeit they could be misleading and that can be an issue if the party advertizing them did not do proper diligence and research.
On the other hand if they repeat the same old same old, people get fed up of hearing what they already know even if it is the truth and realize that the "old players" are long gone and that new key people are now in place.
Besides if you are a smart voter, you will look at all the parties and not take any advertizing at all. Do you buy a car solely on the ad on TV or do you check it out ?