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Friday, June 19, 2015

Attack Ads North and South

Canada is gearing up for a federal election and the US is in permanent election mode, so it is interesting to compare politics north and south and their advertisements.

Canada

  • Tight regulations on campaign spending
  • Multiple parties
  • Socially and economically to the left of the USA, and moving to the left
  • "Nice" country, could lose votes if you are too nasty

USA

  • Unlimited spending on politics by anyone anytime anywhere for any purpose as far as I can tell
  • Two parties
  • Individualists, becoming more conservative
  • Could lose votes if you are too nice
Both countries share a lot of cultural characteristics and attack ads seem to have permeated both sides of the border.

In Canada, the attack ads seem to be written by political hacks but acted out by the local amateur theater group, but the actors are still nice, check this attack ad on Justin Trudeau out:

In the US, the attack ads are written by professionals and professionally delivered and you are never sure who is paying for them, check out this attack on Hillary Clinton by Karl Rove's political organization:

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