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Election slogans set up choice between leadership and change

Election slogans set up choice between leadership and change

Canada’s political parties hit the campaign trail this month with ready-made battle cries, the slogans meant to win hearts and minds and get out the vote.

The ruling Conservatives went with “Proven leadership for a strong Canada,” sticking to their brand of strength and security and playing up their experience in government.

The opposition New Democratic Party went with “Ready to lead,” promising to hit the ground running if they take the most seats in the House of Commons.

The third-place Liberals are promising “Real change for the middle class,” aiming to brand themselves as a better option than either of their rivals to address the real issues facing one of Canada’s biggest voting blocks.

The Green Party is calling for “A Canada that works. Together.” The Bloc Québécois has no English slogan, but one of the party’s prominent messages translates roughly to “We grow, we gather, we move forward, together.”

Memorial University professor Alex Marland says having a simple and straightforward slogan is more important than it’s ever been in the new world of social media and 24/7 campaigns.

With so many different modes of communication with potential voters, he said, political parties are paring down their platforms as much as possible.

“The way to make sure that, wherever your message is communicated, it’s always communicating the same thing is to drill it down to a few words, a slogan,” he said. “You need to constantly repeat the same things to boil it down to some key points that work on a smartphone or on the news.”

A good political slogan, he said, is short and catchy enough to be repeated over and over again while still saying something fundamental about what the party represents.

"It has to resonate and capture a mood,” he said. “Using a word like change only works if people think it’s time for change.”

Marland said slogans can also be position statements for the parties, laying out and directing a theme for all of the messaging during a campaign.

While some people doubt whether or not political slogans actually work, Marland said they’re particularly effective at reaching those who aren’t deeply interested in the political sphere.

“Most people are not paying a lot of attention,” he said. “The reality is that these very simple messages are designed to reach everybody, including those people.”

University of Ottawa marketing professor Gurprit Kindra said branding is at the centre of any modern political campaign.

He said parties use focus groups and public polling to determine the best messaging well before each vote.

“Each slogan represents a mantra based on research into the minds of the citizens,” he said.

Kindra said that of the three major parties, the Conservatives’ slogan struck him as the weakest.

“It focuses on job experience, leading to a mental counter argument because Harper was green when he started,” he said. “Strong Canada does resonate with a lot of people, but the harsh ‘strong leadership’ is a skill that comes with experience and surrounding one’s self with capable people.”

Kindra said one of the best measures of a political party’s communication strategy is not its slogan but rather its attack ads. Those parties without a simple positive message may instead use a simple and negative one, he said.

He pointed to the branding of previous Liberal leaders Stéphane Dion, whom the Conservatives said was not a leader, and Michael Ignatieff, whom the Conservatives said was just visiting, as examples of successful attack ads.

And while there are few risks to a positive slogan, he said, a negative one can backfire.

“Canadians are pretty good at seeing through and what shows up is pure meanness,” he said.