Impending attacks on the surging NDP

Another prominent theme on Twiiter is that Tom can't be trusted with the nation's finances because his house was mortgaged 11 times. Interestingly, most of the Twitter negativity comes from self-proclaimed Liberals. Perhaps they are worried about something.......

Are any of those twitter accounts linked to the Liberal Party? I very much doubt it.

Isn't this sort of thing normal on twitter just as it is in the comments area of news stories?

There are individual shills who will make bank if the Liberals win. They can get jobs like MP Chief of Staff, Constituency Office Manager, Immigration File Manager, at least 5 or 6 jobs for each MP's budget. So for each party you have about 1500 trolls who have some skin in the game. Then you have businesses who are backing various candidates and parties.

Liberals have lost a lot of these cushy jobs which they feel are theirs by entitlement. The idea of losing even more political jobs like this is a cause of great outrage to Liberals, and this is why attacks from Liberal sources are going to be the most vicious.

One of the reasons I think there is a rise in NDP support is that there has been a general awakening of the population. The plutocratic, patronage-based way the Liberal-Conservatives have been running this country has become obsolete and unacceptable.

 They work best when used against ill defined politicians who do things to reinforce the message. Also subtly is important, if you come off looking like an ass its not going to work and can blow up in your face. Also it has to be something people care about, no one gives two shits if Tom's mad, its not even worth denying, its gotten him no where. 

 I know what ads I'd put out that would be devistating to Tom, but I will not to sharing them for obvious reasons.

Because I am depressed and have no social life , I spend alot of time on facebook. I notice in the past few days there were alot of negative attacks against all of the NDP advertisnments on facebook. Its very discouraging.

This one urges Canadian to sign a peittion to repeal Bill C 51 :

https://www.facebook.com/NDP.NPD/posts/868736313162575?comment_id=869488...

The most "Liked" comments include, "

• I would not sign that petition, if you paid me"
•  I wouldn't support old Thom on anything  
• I WILL NEVER SIGN THIS!!!! Apparently the NDP welcomes terrorists to Canada.

This NDP ad reads "are you ready to bring change to Ottawa?

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=868721449830728&id=190502667...

The most "Liked" comments include,

God help us all if he gets elected

Not a bloody chance!! I believe the guy is a loose cannon. Right now he is cashing in on Notley's massive win in Alberta and milking it for all he can!

The NDP or Liberals will only hurt us . They will piss off big business and they will walk to another country and take the few jobs with them . Build the middle class only on the backs of the ones below them . Do you think union workers give a crap about people who make less then they do . And if you go after the wealthy they will take the jobs away , cut spending then we will be in trouble .

This NDP advertisment is about raising the minimum wage to 15 dollar an hour -

https://www.facebook.com/NDP.NPD/posts/868729126496627?comment_id=869491...

The most "like" comments include :

I paid $1200.00 per month for 1 full time position & 2 after school positions in the late 90s & early 2000s. I paid the entire cost, no subsidy, no break on my income tax. I paid for quality day care for my children, I didn't whine and I NEVER expected the government to help me out. My kids my responsibility.

I paid $20.00 per day already back in 1992 who's going to pay the difference. Day care will not be able to survive on $15.00 a day per child now a days. Good plan but need more details on where you will you will get the rest of the money? Tax Payers pocket again....

How about you pay to raise your own kids like everyone else has done

Its ugly.

So I should interpret comments made here by NDP supporters indicative of how the NDP behaves.

Trolls will troll about anything. The same trolls could be making comments on the twitter feeds of all three parties.

I will carry your conspiracy theory to it's logical conclusion. The NDP are paying people to troll them to make the Liberals and Conservatives look bad because no party would deliberately make themselves look like twitter trolls.

takeitslowly wrote:

socialdemocraticmiddle wrote:

It's funny. Some comments I find discouraging. But those comments actually give me a huge sigh of relief.

They're all the usual Conservative bullshit. The Conservatives are the ones who want to politicize terrorism to support Bill C-51, or who red-bait and believe that we'd be better off dismantling the social safety net completely. 

There's something to be said for making the right enemies. Progressives who see those comments are going to know that the NDP is a genuine change from the Harper years.

Yes. I agree, I am just wondering why all the negative comments being upvoted, I was just thinking we might have already moved beyond the fear mongering. I hope it is just really well corrdinated trollings from the Conservative!

I doubt it is at all coordinated. The only people subscribed to political twitter accounts are political junkies who are supporters of the various parties and not even all of them.

In my experience on message boards the nastiest comments come from the extreme right wing, reformers not the PC type. I think the conservatives like the republicans in the states breed extreme hostility through divisive politics that encorage resentment.

I checked the comments at Hepburn's inane "commentary" (aka fictional propaganda), and found that the majority of comments attacking Mulcair were from Liberals (mortgage, separatism, Mulcair supposedly being like Harper in style, etc), whereas the Conservative posters generally stuck with attacking Trudeau.  So, assuming this tone to be a precursor of what's to come in television ads, I'm guessing the Conservative party will hold its fire on Mulcair, and I'm guessing the Conservative party is hoping the Liberals will begin attacking the NDP.  So far, neither the Liberals nor the NDP have put out television ads attacking each other (that I'm aware of -- at least with their current leaders).  Sure, they've done online attacks, but not official television ads.  I think the Conservatives are hoping the Liberals will blink.

In BC, it was felt that the NDP's lack of a counter-attack led to their loss.  How did the scenario unfold in Alberta?  I believe there were some attacks from the PCs on the NDP and that Prentice focussed largely on Notley during the debate.  Did the Alberta NDP run attack ads on the PCs and Wildrose?  Or did they stick to positive messaging?

alan smithee wrote:

Comment sections always attract assholes. I pay no attention to them. I still believe that there are enough Canadians that hate Harper that he will have a seriously hard time to best a minority.

In the coming months,especially the debates,will seperate the all the bullshit. The NDP desperately need to be aggressive and if they need to play dirty,so be it. Mind you,shedding light on the other parties sins is like shooting fish in a barrel.

I've been overthinking it in my last couple of previous comments here. 

You're right alan.  I agree 100%.

alan smithee wrote:

The NDP desperately need to be aggressive and if they need to play dirty,so be it.

Not that the party hasn't played dirty on occasion and not gotten much to show for it, all I see now is that it would be a great opportunity to show how they are no different than anyone else when it comes to putting power above principles.

What an alternative.

Anyone else seen this LPC, supposedly, "neutrual", push poll, Which political party are you? Try this short quiz to find out. http://canada.isidewith.com/political-quiz?from=ZaHVuZb9S  on their Facebook feed?

I think its meant to move NDP voters to the liberal position. Too bad it doesnt also take into account the broken promises by the libs in the past as a factor. That would put my result near the bottom I suspect.

http://canada.isidewith.com/results/969454277

No huge surprises here.

90% NDP

88% Liberal

84% Green

77% Communist

71% Bloc Québecois

20% Libertarian

9% Christian Heritage

1% Conservative.

Brachina wrote:

 See.Pondering even the Liberal Push Poll thinks you should vote NDP :-) 

lol yeah, but they didn't ask about the unity question or marijuana!

People ARE burnt out on Harper. He's going on to his 10th year,fatigue is setting in.

The only thing the Harpercons have going for them is that solid 30% support.

That leaves 70% up for grabs.

Unfortunately it's the NDP and Liberals who will befighting for a majority of that 70%. I don't think Canadians are opposed to a coalition.

Yes,coalition,coalition,coalition....Whatever it takes to defeat Mussolini and his motley crew of minions.

2006

Most of those lines weren't work

1. The Quebec Liberal Party isn't affiliated with the federal Liberals, on the Constitution the Quebec Libs are probably more in agreement with the NDP and the NDP had no provincial counterpart for Mulcair to join in Quebec anyway.  Also, Mulcair left the Charest government on a matter of principle, which is largely why Quebeckers like him so much.  It would be pretty unconvincing.

2. The whole "Angry Tom" thing would come across as contrived, but they will likely try it in a subtle way.  The problem for the Grits and the Tories is that Tom has never exploded (really) in public or in front of the cameras, and there's lots of footage of him over the past year smiling and being friendly.  The Liberals especially might try to dredge up Jack Layton's memory in order to suggest that Mulcair isn't the same, but if they go too far with that it will probably rub people the wrong way.  Canadians just don't see Mulcair as "Angry Tom" and that is very unlikely to change in just four months.  It's lame, but they'll probably try it.

3. The whole Mulcair was willing to join the Conservatives in exchange for a bribe allegation is a likely tactic to be employed by the Conservatives.  The only problem is it's his word versus there's, and most prospective NDP voters don't trust the Conservatives as far as they can throw them.  They'll try it, but overall it won't be very effective.

4. Any suggestion that Mulcair's being insencere on his committment to repeal Bill C51 won't convince voters either.  He's never broken a promise yet (partly because he's never been elected to anything beyond opposition leader).  I think he has more political capital than either Harper or Trudeau.

5. The only party that could attack him over his English rights activist past would be the Bloc.  Neither the Conservatives or Liberal could or would go that route (for the Liberals it would be hypocritical).  BUT, Quebeckers are tired of the neverending identity debate, and this election is likely to be about regime change in Quebec, not defending Quebec's culture.  Duceppe will try it, but it likely won't work either.

6. Senate reform - the Liberal and Conservative tactic, particularly the Liberal tactic, is interestingly enough negative - "it can't be done."  What the two parties forget with this attack line is the extreme unpopularity of the institution they're de facto (outright in the case of the Liberals) defending.  This is particularly troublesome for the Conservatives as most of their voters would agree with Mulcair on this issue.  Personally, I don't think it's "impossible," just difficult.  All Mulcair has to do is brush these negative suggestions aside, keep saying that he'll hold a referendum and consult with the premiers, deny that he'll ever appoint senators and control the debate (he's pretty good at that).  Canadians are so outraged with the Senate that they're likely to give Mulcair the benefit of the doubt on this one.  Trudeau's "blue chip panel" suggestion might impress some people, but it's out of step with the popular mood (it's also stupid as far as I'm concerned).

7. Is the "bribe" which you're referring to that envelope that Mulcair did NOT accept???  That wouldn't be a very effective attack either as he did NOT accept it.  Me thinks that it will be like the Toronto Sun's "scoop" on Jack Layton's massage parlour visit back in 2011, potential NDP voters aren't going to give a shit or buy it.  

8. Finally we reach the ONLY potential attack which might be midly effective - the Board of Internal Economy.  It is a kangaroo court, controlled by a majority of Conservatives and Liberals, both the Tories and Grits are knee deep in the Senate scandals, the allegations and allegedly broken rules are confusing and coincidentally, the BOIE only brings up this alleged scandal whenever new Senate revelations emerge or if the NDP surges in the polls. It's not incredibly convincing either, but it might create some doubt.  However, the BOIE has been playing this game for two years and it hasn't had any impact on Mulcair's approval ratings..  I'm sceptical.  

Taking progressive voters and Quebec for granted was a foolish thing for the Liberals to do.  Basically, their strategy pretended as though the NDP wasn't a factor.  Given the fact that they have a leader who is well known in Quebec and 57 incumbents there, there was a wee bit of hubris influencing that assumption.  

Pondering wrote:

Brachina wrote:

 See.Pondering even the Liberal Push Poll thinks you should vote NDP :-) 

lol yeah, but they didn't ask about the unity question or marijuana!

Which unity question and marijuana questions didn't they ask?

Domestic Policy: Should Quebec be granted sovereignty from the rest of Canada?

Healthcare: Should marijuana be legalized in Canada?

My results, FWIW;

NDP 78%

Green 77%

Liberal 75%

BQ 73%

Communist 69%

Libertarian 13%

Christian Heritage 9%

Conservative 1%

 The unity question was poorly phrased, it Does Quebec have the right to seperate if they want?

progressive-patriot wrote:

As an aside - the Liberals also can't afford to go too negative against Mulcair because that would make a mockery of their already ridiculously hypocritical image of being the "positive" and "hopeful" option.  Trudeau is screwed.  

I expect the Liberals are going to drop that image.  So, Trudeau's "Hope and Hard Work" will soon be replaced by:  Trudeau, the "Desperate and Nasty Jerk".

alan smithee wrote:

RE : Layton's massage parlour smear.

Even if it was an adult massage parlour,who cares?

People need to fuckin' grow up already and resign to the fact that the world is a grown up place.

I'm tired of inherently hypocritical moralists.The 19th Century is over and there is no room in the world for these people anymore.

That smear did cause a 2-point drop in support for the NDP in stodgy Ontario, I think.  Unfortunately, stuff like that does affect some voters.  Generally smears like this are not an official part of any party's attack, but are introduced via obscure releases to the Sun or Post or Star.  So, I do expect some attempts at smears to crop up from Mulcair's past.  But I think most things about the NDP and Mulcair are already upfront, and so no new surprise will be found, I feel. 

mark_alfred wrote:

alan smithee wrote:

RE : Layton's massage parlour smear.

Even if it was an adult massage parlour,who cares?

People need to fuckin' grow up already and resign to the fact that the world is a grown up place.

I'm tired of inherently hypocritical moralists.The 19th Century is over and there is no room in the world for these people anymore.

That smear did cause a 2-point drop in support for the NDP in stodgy Ontario, I think.  Unfortunately, stuff like that does affect some voters.  Generally smears like this are not an official part of any party's attack, but are introduced via obscure releases to the Sun or Post or Star.  So, I do expect some attempts at smears to crop up from Mulcair's past.  But I think most things about the NDP and Mulcair are already upfront, and so no new surprise will be found, I feel. 

True.

But what are they going unearth about Mulcair? That he once ate a glazed donut?