NEGATIVE ADS TAR ALL POLITICIANS

“Ignatieff – he didn’t come back for you.” A current Tory ad heaps poisonous invective on Michael Ignatieff. Once things really get going there will be smear commercials in all directions, from all parties. You can’t legislate against negative campaign advertising. You can't make it stop. The great manipulators like Karl Rove have turned campaign advertising into an art form. Hit ‘em hard. Hit ‘em often. Dredge up whatever gossip you can. Tar your opponents with the brushes of deceit, disgrace, and evil. The Left hammers at the Right calling them friends of big business and Wall street. The Right hammers back calling the Left “tax and spend” or held captive by Big Labour. Very little of what is said is totally wrong – it is taken out of context and misused.

Some go even farther. Rove may have been the inventor of “push” polling. This is about as sinister as it gets. My favourite (if that word can be used to describe a tactic so disgusting) was his use of phone push-polling during the 2000 Republican Presidential primaries. McCain had won – I think - New Hampshire. The next big test was South Carolina. Bush had to win. Rove struck, South Carolinians got survey questions on the phone like” “If you believed that McCain had fathered a child illegitimately with a black woman, would it matter to your vote?” Another big Rove question during the run for Governor in Texas. “If you heard that Ann Richards (The incumbent Democratic governor) was a lesbian – would that affect your vote?”

All’s fair…etc. But beyond the sleaze, there is another reality. My son and I were talking about it the other day. He made the point that negative advertising, no matter who it attacks, helps persuade the voters that all politicians are not to be trusted. The negative ad guys get hoist on their own petard.

Several years ago, on my boat, where I had always been the epitome of hospitable welcome, I was at the helm. Sitting next to me a man and a woman, guests of a friend of mine, were in a heavy-duty discussion about politics. It was after the Ontario election (where I ran unsuccessfully) and they carried on in a way we have come to accept as typical. “All politicians are out for what they can get,” “Yeah - they tell us one thing just to get elected then they don't deliver.” “Yeah, you can’t trust them. They’re all in it for what they can get out of it for themselves.”

The conversation went on for a few minutes as these two experts tore politics and politicians to shreds. I couldn’t bear another second. I never did this to guests but I exploded. “Do you have any idea why people run for office? Do you know how hard we have to work and give up everything just to win an election? Do you know that five people may run in one riding and four go home disappointed. I suggest you try running sometime and see how you feel!” Phew.

They were flabbergasted and embarrassed. But they were talking the way so many voters talk. We have ourselves to blame. The continuing barrage of negative advertising has created an atmosphere that supports the prejudices of many voters. Politicians are held in low esteem.

It is almost axiomatic as well that some time after a once wildly popular politician is elected, people campaign for his fall. Pericles created the Golden Age of Greece. After a few years the citizens of Athens were reviling him.

It takes a lot of nerve, not to mention money, and continuing absence from your job to run in an election. John Kennedy called politics the greatest calling of them all. No one really listened and only his tragic death saved him from the inevitable ignominy that follows success. (In fact the body was hardly cold when the gossip about his sexual behaviour became water-cooler conversation.)

It’s a tough life. If you lose you get nothing. If you win – sometimes it’s even worse.