Political Marketing in Canada

Book excerpt: Political parties worldwide are using marketing tools such as targeting and segmentation to win elections. Are these strategies making politicians and governments more responsive to voters’ needs, or do they pose a threat to democracy? Political Marketing in Canada, the first book to ask this question of Canada, considers the consequences of political marketing in the realms of public policy, leadership, and the government-citizen relationship. Through dynamic case studies that range from the resurrection of the Conservative Party, to media accounts of political marketing, to Tim Hortons as a political brand, the authors trace how political marketing is transforming the old system of brokerage politics into a new, distinctly Canadian model. Citizens are now viewed as consumers, and platforms and promises have been repackaged as products. Whether this trend is positive or negative, the authors argue, depends on how politicians and governments carry out political marketing – and its promises – in practice.