NDP economic plan – ballot question?
Posted October 28, 2008 by Sacha Peter - Link
Category: NDP
Comments Off
The concept of the “ballot question” is paramount to any political campaign – what question do you want to give to people when they go and vote?
In the last federal election, the ballot question was “Do you want Stephane Dion as your Prime Minister?” and the public generally voted no to this.
After reading the NDP economic plan response, I suspect the NDP may be trying to make the ballot question as “Do you want the carbon tax?” – if they can do this, it would give the NDP the best shot at forming government. The BC Liberals’ ballot question is shaping up to be “Do you think Carole James or Gordon Campbell will make a better economic manager in tough times?”.
I see two flaws with the NDP’s current approach. One is that they consistently refer to the carbon tax as “the gas tax”, which is to appease the green side of the party base. The NDP’s support is split on the carbon tax, just like the BC Liberals’ camp. The other issue the NDP has with their strategy is that their focus on certain other topics, such as homelessness, is not going to attract the moderate voter. The political middle pays to have a roof over their heads, and using their tax dollars to pay for housing that others are unwilling to work for is not going to win the NDP any new voters.
I also thought the NDP’s economic address had an unusual focus on rural British Columbia, so it is obvious the NDP is thinking they are going to make some inroads in the BC Interior. They would have to think that the Prince George seats are in play for the 2009 election.
Both parties are going to push hard to the middle in the next six months.