Spirit of Radio: Ad wars pitch Conservatives versus Liberals

Across the country this holiday season, voters who listen to radio will be hearing pitches from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.

Maybe.

The Liberals have announced that they have two different radio ads ready to go. You can listen to them on their Web site but, so far at least, I have no reports that anyone has actually heard them in the wild.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have said nothing publicly about any radio ad buy they have going this seasons and yet, Twitter reports that there are at least three different Conservative Party of Canada radio ads being played in places as varied as St. John’s, Toronto and Vancouver.

So first order of business, dear reader: If you hear or see any advertisement sponsored by any political party, tell the world (and several eager Parliamentary Press Gallery journalists) about it by going on Twitter and reporting the ad, the program, the time, and the location with the hashtag #SawAnAd. If you don’t do Twitter, e-mail that info my way and I will publicize.

So what have we got?

Well, first of all, we’ve got Stephen Harper telling Canadians he’s trying to give money to families.

Where is this ad running? Lots of hearings, apparently, including:

@davidakin #sawanad CPC pushing benefits for families. Coast 101.1 St. John’s NL.

— Rick Stead (@SteadRB) December 18, 2014

We’ve also got Harper telling you that giving money to families is the reason he got into politics in the first place!

Harper talking in an echo chamber on BOOM 97.3. #SawAnAd — Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) December 13, 2014

Boom 97.3, FYI, is a Toronto radio station. Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, meanwhile, are hammering away at the Conservative income-splitting plan. Click on the link below to listen to Trudeau narrate this ad. (For some reason, the Liberals did not enable the “embed code” function at their SoundCloud account on this one so you’ll have to head there before coming back here to read/listen to the rest of this post.)

Here is the Liberal ad.

In the third ad the Conservatives are runnning, Justin Trudeau is mentioned by name and the narrator says “he’ll raise our taxes, take away payments to parents”.

The budget will balance itself ad in Halifax on Tuesday #SawAnAd — Joey Archibald (@joeyarchibald) December 11, 2014

Don’t think the Conservatives have much of a chance in 2015 in Atlantic Canada but they sure do in the Greater Vancouver Area:  

@InklessPW have been hearing Stephen Harper strong leadership ads, budget balancing itself ads on CKNW in Vancouver for two days. #sawanad — kevin harding (@kevinharding) December 11, 2014

 Trudeau has an answer on this one. He says Harper’s tax cuts are coming at the expense of our veterans. This would be an attack ad, folks.

Finally, I may have teased you to read this blog post with the title “Spirit of Radio”. So here it is ..

You’re welcome.