A multifaceted account of how marketing has infiltrated Canadian politics, transforming the way parties and politicians electioneer on a permanent basis.
Description
Political parties worldwide are using marketing tools such as targeting and segmentation to win elections. Are these strategies making politicians and governments more responsive to voters’ needs, or do they pose a threat to democracy? Through case studies that range from the resurrection of the Conservative Party to Tim Hortons as a political brand, this volume shows that the consequences of political marketing in Canada have been profound. Citizens are now viewed as consumers, and platforms and promises have been repackaged as products. Whether this trend is positive or negative depends on how politicians and governments carry out political marketing – and its promises – in practice.
Awards
- Commended, The Hill Times Editors' 25 Pick of Best Books for 2012
- Commended, The Hill Times List of Top 100 Best Books for 2012
Reviews
The book is a collection of sophisticated, learned research into the nuts and bolts of modern campaigning, aspects too often ignored in Canadian political science, which tends to view politics through the loftier prisms of history, ideology or procedure. The editors and contributors to this volume force us to confront the reality that modern Canadian politics is as much about commercial marketing principles as it is about any of the other more intellectual and less pragmatic views of what drives our political world.
- Susan Delacourt