Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Liberals Will Take To The Air

I take this as a realization, of just how high the stakes, the Liberals will run ads to promote the "tax shift":
The cash-strapped Liberal party plans to spend a precious chunk of its election reserve to advertise their carbon tax when the scheme is unveiled next month.

I hope the party sends out a fundraising call, directly tied to "selling" the plan. At the very least, it's something the grassroots can get behind and I suspect the response would be good. Everyone understands this will be a tough sell, and I would recommend a Conservative-style call to action, wherein you are asked to donate to offset the attacks.

The good news, from a tactical perspective, there will be a coherent plan to market the idea and make sure people understand the concepts. The key will be a clear and concise message, if we get lost in the details, it's probably a steeper climb.

6 comments:

Sean S. said...

some details to get lost in would be nice...so far its just hot air....

tdwebste said...

I agree with sean,

details are needed,
If people are left confused, the simplest safest choice is to stick with the status quo.

Also more details about how the money is going to be spent are need before it is possible to make judgment.

30sec eye catching ads,
leverage advertising as infommercial, high priced commercial media or low cost media, advertising to

Steve V said...

Oh, we need details, I just mean the pitch has to be concise and clear.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see the plan. I have been watching the forum on rabble where the mostly NDP supporting membership has been trashing the tax-shifts because among other things they say it will never result in people changing their habits (they support just "banning" things - and it seems that many support banning just about everything - one going so far as to even promote the banning of bookstores as people can go to the library instead) and as an example they use the increasing price of gasoline not changing people's driving habits or the vehicles they drive.

So, today when I took my car into the Toyota dealership to get my oil changed I noticed that they someone was signing the papers for a new Prius so I asked them how many they have been selling. They told me that it was crazy - that they had sold more Prius' this year than any other vehicle and that there was a several month waiting list. Never have they seen a vehicle that people will buy without a test drive.

That news was most pleasant news to me as it was 4 years ago that I had walked into the same dealership and told them that I wanted to buy a Prius. They refused. Told me that they would need to send someone away to get trained on how to do the maintenance on it and they wouldn't do so for one vehicle. When I told them that surely other people would buy Prius' as well, they told me that no one would EVER buy a Prius in northern Ontario (they thought I was insane). So I bought one through a dealer in southern Ontario and then through the head office forced my local dealer to do the maintenance on it. Ten months later the local dealer sold their first Prius to a coworker of mine.

Tax shifting will work.

Gayle said...

I am with you on the WS. We were just discussing it in our office yesterday and we all agreed that we have been changing our habits to address environmental concerns. The fact that it is less expensive to do so definately plays a role. One person just bought a new car and while he did not get a Prius, he asked for a car that is fuel efficient. When we travel for work we always go in the car that uses the least amount of gas. Two years ago it would have been in the big SUV with all the bells and whistles.

So I do believe tax shifting will work.

On another note, I received a nice card and a photo of Dion today from Greg Fergus thanking me for my donation. Nice photo but I would prefer the party spend the money on something useful. :)

Sean S. said...

Gayle, you point out an excellent example of what increased gas prices will lead people to do, not tax shifting....