Via Capital Notebook comes news that the Alberta Liberal Caucus has released a new political ad-style YouTube video trying to tie Premier Ed Stelmach and Danielle Smith to Ronald Reagan, Brian Mulroney, George W. Bush, Don Getty, and Stephen Harper.
Communications Director Neil Mackie described the motivation behind this video:
“Conservatives in this province get a free pass on being fiscally responsible. They don’t have to do it. This is an attempt to address that misperception.”
I’ve long been an advocate of Alberta’s opposition parties becoming more creative with their message delivery, but I’m not sure what to think about this video. First, round numbers are nice, but it is a little disingenuous to round up Alberta’s projected deficit from $6.9 billion to $10 billion. Second, beyond ‘the ominous music means that these fiscal conservatives are bad people,‘ I’m really not clear what the message is supposed to be (I’m sure it won’t take long for someone to create a video showcasing David Swann with Liberal Prime Ministers and Premiers who have run deficits).
It will probably generate the media, blog, twitter, and water cooler chatter that it was produced to create, but unless there are sequels, I’m unsure of what the objective of this video is.
(h/t Trish Audette)
