Do Canadians care about NASCAR?

CANOE -- CNEWS - Weird News: Tories use news, NASCAR in bid for voters

Do Canadians care about NASCAR? Sure they do, so this might be a good idea for the Conservative Party to advertise on a NASCAR. Brilliant idea right? WRONG.

The thing is, truly sponsoring a NASCAR is one thing. It would give you a North American TV audience every Sunday afternoon looking at your car and the big Conservative logo going round and round a racetrack somewhere between 150 and 200 times, and maybe it would be the winning care once in a while. Brilliant because it gets people to think about politics on slow news days. NASCAR has a remarkable following in the United States, and probably a similarly robust following in Canada.

BUT, that's not what the Conservative Party has done. They have sponsored a car in the Canadian NASCAR circuit, not the true NASCAR circuit.

Further, according to the news article the Tories have a two-fold strategy with this scheme, not only are they tapping into the supposed gold-mine of Canadian NASCAR watchers... but they are guaranteeing themselves favourable coverage in the blogosphere:

It turns out the party logo - a big blue "C" - appears on the hood of the car driven by Pierre Bourque, whose popular Internet news aggregator sells torqued headlines to political operatives.

Bourque's website confirmed the connection Monday, linking to a story by Inside Track Motorsport News that noted his Dodge Charger is the sponsored Tory vehicle.

I must admit, this could turn out to be a good gamble, but there are so many unknowns.

1. How many people actually watch NASCAR in Canada? And, will those same people tune in to Canadian NASCAR? A racing series that is only debuting this spring?

2. Is Borque a good driver?

3. How will photos of the Conservative car crashing on the front page, resonate with the rest of Canada who is not watching the TV coverage or attending the races?

4. How many people actually go to races?

5. Do race fans want to think about politics?

It could work, but it could also backfire.

We shall see!

A.L.

A real plan to tackle climate change!

CTV.ca | Ont. Liberals promise to close coal plants by 2014

It looks as though Premier McGuinty has taken a page out of the Governator's book.

The Ontario Liberals under McGuinty will do more and go further than the federal Conservaties to deal with the climate change crisis, just like Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger has gone further and done more for the environment than President Bush has in Washington.

This is a very good thing. This can and will build momentum for serious efforts to combat climate change. These are two huge jurisdictions politically and geographically and with a few more states and provinces on board, it won't be long before the federal governments in both countries will be forced into serious action.

A.L.

Liberals ahead by 3% Nationally!

CTV.ca | Liberals take three-point lead over Tories: poll

Interesting. Now, while it is within the margin of error of the poll, 3% +/-, the regional numbers are more troubling for the Tories.

Because of small regional sample sizes, Decima averages results over three weeks of polling. The latest averages suggest the Liberals were six percentage points ahead of the Tories in Atlantic Canada -- 37-31 -- with the NDP at 20 per cent and the Greens at nine.

The poll also put the Liberals ahead in Ontario, 39-33, and had the Bloc rebounding in Quebec to 38 per cent, followed by the Liberals at 23 and the Conservatives at 16 per cent.

Again, the margin of error regionally is even bigger at 6% but, those are telling margins in Atlantic Canada and Quebec for sure. Ontario still looks like a dead-heat.

Looks like Dion is within striking distance... I say that because the summer BBQ circuit can do wonders for image and connections with the grassroots.

A.L.

Harper is a Climate Change Pretender!

Canada gets failing grade on climate report card

I will be the first to say that the Liberals under Chretien and Martin certainly did not show much visible progress on the Climate file other than ratifying Kyoto.

But intensity targets? INTENSITY TARGETS!!!???

Does everyone understand what that means? It means that as long as the pollution per GDP stays below a certain target number we can pat ourselves on the back for doing something to fight Global Warming.

Seems good right? Except that it is a plain lie. Under that scheme if the economy continues to grow the total emissions could increase and then we (Canada) will have actually emitted more greenhouse gases and done NOTHING to help the environment.

Kyoto made it clear, cut total emissions below 1990 levels, period.

The Harper government as climate change good guys is a sad, sad fraud perpetrated on the Canadian people. Don't let it fool you! They want to have their cake and eat it too.

It is likely that the economy must give a little so that we can all continue to live on this planet, and I believe that industry can and will innovate to find profitable ways to reduce total emissions. It can be done, it must be done, and we can do it.

A.L.