Political strategy in the home stretch

With just a few short days to go until Canadians head to the polls, the major federal parties are gearing up for their final push of this exceptionally long campaign.

What can voters expect to see in the home stretch? To answer that question, The West Block turned to Conservative Rick Anderson, the NDP’s Robin Sears and Liberal Lindsay Doyle.

“The last week is usually just emotional colour,” said Sears.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The last week is usually just emotional colour," said Sears.

“Big rallies, storytelling, baby kissing, or you could cancel all the interviews you’ve scheduled with the national media and go into a sulk, which I gather is another option that we’re exploring in one party’s case.”

Sears was referring to the Conservative camp and Stephen Harper, who cancelled interviews with Global News and other outlets last week.

Anderson noted that parties used to release their full platforms early in the campaign, but that left little to talk about for the rest of the race.

“I think it’s smarter what parties are doing now, which is to talk about issues and make announcements all the way through the course of the campaign and summarize their platform at the end of the campaign, which is really what happened this week.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I think it's smarter what parties are doing now, which is to talk about issues and make announcements all the way through the course of the campaign and summarize their platform at the end of the campaign, which is really what happened this week."

Host Tom Clark then pointed out that at this late stage, many voters may already have decided who they are supporting, and the platform document is unlikely to change minds. Doyle agreed.

“Absolutely, I think if anything, it just formalizes the process,” she said. “But we have seen various aspects of the platform be released throughout this very long campaign and they’ve had to do that because they’ve got to keep their headlines, and they’ve gotta keep voters interested in what has been the longest campaign in Canadian history … but people know where the parties stand on key issues, so I don’t think that’s going to change much for any voters right now.”

Voter engagement is already showing signs of improvement over the last federal election. Elections Canada reported that the turnout for Friday’s advanced polls was a full 26 per cent higher than on the first day of advance polls in the 2011 election, and 90 per cent higher than the first day of advanced polling in 2008.

READ MORE: Elections Canada reports higher voter turnout for advanced polls this weekend