Tom Flanagan’s Winning Power is an impressive piece of writing. This is because it combines academic research with practical knowledge of campaigning. Flanagan worked for a variety of “Conservative” parties. This is in addition to being a professor which has given him great experience to draw upon in helping with understanding Canadian electioneering.
Positioning And Emotions In Politics
Flanagan gives a clear and cogent view of positioning in Canadian political marketing. He neatly explains the problem of the Canadian center-left. The details the battle between the NDP and Liberals to be the main rival to the Conservatives. This struggle is now playing out fascinatingly in the current election campaign. [Written in 2015. The liberals have largely won this battle over the six years to now, 2021].
He notes the usefulness of emotions in political decisions.
To some, it may seem irrational that emotion plays such a large role in campaigning.
Flanagan, 2014, page 21
But Flanagan correctly points out a major point.
“… distinguished philosophers and scientists have seen emotion as essential to human decision-making…
Flanagan, 214, page 22
I agree that just because campaigns use emotions in their messaging and voters use emotions in their decision-making doesn’t mean that they are doing something wrong.
Swing Voters Are You
One important lesson is for those of us with experience of politics. We shouldn’t assume that we think about issues the same way as do swing voters.
Party strategists cannot afford to trust their own intuitions because they are not typical of the people they are trying to attract.
Flanagan, 2104, page 80
Many a campaign has failed because everyone thought their ideas were clearly superior to the opposition’s ideas. They, therefore, didn’t work hard enough to connect with swing voters. It wasn’t so obvious to the swing voters who had the best ideas.
Understanding Canadian Electioneering
Much of the book is a discussion of the 2012 Alberta elections. The problem facing the Liberals was especially interesting. The Liberals chose to attack the Wildrose party as right-wing extremists. Flanagan said that this drove Liberal voters to vote Conservative. The potential liberals voted Conservative to stop the (even worse from their view) Wildrose. This hurt Wildrose. It hurt the Liberals even more in the province where they sunk to a distant third. Political campaigns, especially in a Canadian context where there are often more than two serious contenders, can have some fascinating dynamics.
For more on political marketing see here, here, and here,
Read: Tom Flanagan (2014) Winning Power: Canadian Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century, McGill-Queen’s University Press