The Conservatives are using the final week of the election campaign to run advertisements where older men are telling other older men to vote for the party — a closing argument that would have been unthinkable only months ago, political advertising experts say.

In new television ads that are airing regularly during the heavily watched NHL playoffs, the Conservatives are playing one spot in which two seniors are golfing and discussing how tough life is for their children, and another where former prime minister Stephen Harper endorses Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Neither commercial shows images of Poilievre.

"We're living in an upside-down world this campaign. Voters that were bedrock Conservative voters in the Harper era now need to be won over. And these are the boomers, 50-plus males," said Dennis Matthews, president of Creative Currency and a former advertising adviser to Harper.

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[–] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah geez its so hard for our kids and our grandkids to make ends meet. We better vote for the party that wants to privatize public services and cut funding for socials programs. That coupled with all the tax breaks for the rich will really pull them through the economy. I just wish there was more we could do.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well, if they were around for Reagan and still believe his rhetoric...

Weirdly, crusty old men seem to be the maddest demographic about this whole Trump thing. Maybe that's why they need an ad in the first place.

[+] jerkface@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Who's saying he isn't? At this point they're trying anything.

But I'll grant that Harper is, at least, not a guy who has spent the last ten years regurgitating whatever bile comes out of Trump's mouth. At this point Pollievre is completely toxic to older voters because he's seen as a reflection of the US politics that lead to our closest ally declaring us an enemy. Harper should be completely toxic, but given time people tend to forget the bad that someone did, and you're left with just the fact that he at least doesn't come off like a whiny teen on 4Chan yelling about "THE WOKE RADICAL LEFT" or whatever dog whistle for "queer people" they're using now.

[–] Evkob@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Harper's been to Mar-a-Lago for events, he's been on Ben Shapiro's podcast, he's been the face of not one but two PragerU videos.

Harper isn't some more respectable, lost form of conservative from yesteryear. Because those don't actually exist. If Harper were running today instead of 20 years ago he would 100% go by the Trumpist playbook.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Exactly. I think he's trying to pretend he's like Mulroney but he very much isn't.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Never said he was. I said he doesn't "come off like" that kind of person. What I'm saying is he's better than Pollievre at keeping the mask on, not that there's anything better under the mask.

[–] Evkob@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I definitely don't disagree with your point, and while I didn't think from your comment that you'd benefit from a reminder of what kind of person Harper is, some people reading these comments might not be as familiar with him.

It's all too easy to fall into the trap of rehabilitating awful politicians from the past when faced with the new generation of awful politicians. I've seen way too many people, even progressives, yearn for the George W. Bush years in the face of the Trump presidency. Like sure, Trump (or Poilievre) might be worse, but that doesn't mean Bush (or Harper) weren't/aren't awful.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, but he is head of the IDU, that should tell everyone what kind of agenda he is pushing.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Should, but people don't pay attention to those kinds of details.

[–] Dystopia@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Younger voters that have never had a conservative government federally/Stephen Harper in power since they became eligible to vote? At least that's the way it sounds since apparently younger generations are voting more for the conservatives, any issues caused by his government aren't relevant to him/it's just the way things have always been. Harper has not been relevant since I became old enough to vote.

There's also people that don't really understand what power different levels of government have, and how much a certain level affects their lives. They likely default to thinking the highest level has the most power over what happens to them in their daily lives. Still stupid how many people thought they were voting out Trudeau in BC's provincial election. I think there was a second province that had the same thing happen during their election too.

As for older voters, the one I know voting conservative is into conspiracy theories, racist, and very "Americanized" with the media they consume. They are also very short sighted and unable to understand long term consequence, and probably thinks voting a different party into power is a quick fix. Not sure why anyone could see what is happening in America and say they want that here in Canada.

Not really sure why NDP is never really seen as an option federally, although this year they seem to be more focused on attack ads than pushing their platform which I don't really like. That could just be me though, and the way I end up getting my information.

[–] saigot@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

It's been 10 years, people have short memories and he is surprisingly popular among young men who weren't politically conscious then.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The federal conservatives really don't do themselves a lot of favours with that cringe commercial. Also PP taking a page out of the Harper playbook and only answering two questions is what's going to sink him. You know why people like Doug Ford despite how horrible everything he's done is? He's very accessible and communicative and answers questions. No I don't like DoFo, but PP is just making himself less appealing by the day by not talking to people.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He's making himself more USian. He sees their king and gets a hard on. He wants that.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

And he doesn't have the personality for that. Trump has his bizarre hold over people that they think is charm but is real narcissistic manipulation, and he's outspoken which people find appealing, but PP has none of that and is just a faceless interchangeable conservative.

[–] ahal@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Doug Ford is famously dismissive of the media. He even created his own literal fake news outlet to avoid having too talk to them.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 8 points 1 year ago

I think we should all take a moment to remember the greatest Conservative Party ad, the one with Russian fighter jets and so much more: https://tube.sbcloud.cc/w/a9f5d907-1d8f-4406-b762-58ea4a39db66

[–] MapleEngineer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I'm a 58 year old man and I will never vote for a party whose members want to take away a woman's right to choose, to take away everyone's right to love who they want, to marry who they want, and to identify how they want. I will never vote for a party that has nothing but grievance and hate as the core of their message.

Canada deserves better.