Canadian federal election, 1993

The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25th, 1993. In this election 295 seats in the Canadian House of Commons were competed for. One of the most eventful elections in Canadian history, more than half of the electorate switched parties from the 1988 election, and led to major change in the nation's politics.

Campaign

All the parties were aware that there would be an election in the fall of 1993. Campbell did extensive campaigning during the summer, touring the nation and attending barbecues and other events. By the end of the summer her personal popularity had increased greatly, far surpassing that of Chrétien.{{ref|summer}} Support for the Progressive Conservative Party had also increased, and they were only a few points behind the Liberals while Reform had been reduced to single digits.

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Campbell dissolved parliament on September 8, beginning the seven week election campaign. At the ceremony at Rideau Hall Campbell made the first of a series of remarks that would dog the Tory campaign. When she was running for the party leadership Campbell's frank honesty was seen as an important asset, and sharp contrast from Mulroney's highly polished style. However, during the campaign Campbell repeatedly made statements that would cause problems for the party. At the Rideau Hall event she told reporters that it was unlikely that the deficit or unemployment would be much reduced before the "end of the century." Later in the campaign she would famously state that an election "is no time to discuss social issues."

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The Tory campaign was headed by chair John Tory and chief strategist Allan Gregg, both experienced Mulroney loyalists. The Tory campaign was by far the best funded, but quickly ran into organizational problems. They failed to get literature distributed to the local campaigns, forcing each candidate to print their own and preventing any unified message.{{ref|lit}} The Tory campaign had been focused on three issues, job creation, deficit reduction, and improving quality of life. However, the party had little credibility on the first two, as over their time in office both unemployment and the deficit had increased dramatically. The party was also reluctant to propose new social programs as in Quebec they had to appeal to nationalists who opposed federal government intervention, and in the West had to appeal to Reform supporters who opposed government intervention in general.

Related Topics:
John Tory - Allan Gregg

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The Liberals, by contrast, had been long prepared for the campaign. On September 19 the Liberals made an unprecedented move by releasing their entire platform, quickly named the Red Book. This document gave a detailed account of exactly what the Liberals would do if they were in office. Several years of effort had gone into the creation of the document, and the Tories had nothing comparable.{{ref|Red}} Several days later the Tories released the hastily assembled A Taxpayer's Agenda, but the Liberals had captured the reputation of being the party with ideas. The Liberals were also consistently well organized and on message, in contrast to the Conservative campaign which the pro-Tory Globe and Mail on September 25 stated was "shaping up to be most incompetent campaign in modern political history".{{ref|comp}}

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The Reform Party also came out with their aggressive "Zero in Three" plan that called for the deficit to be brought to zero in three years through deep spending cuts. The party had little money and few resources, but had developed an extensive grassroots network in much of the West and Ontario. Reform's lack of funds led them to fly economy class, stay in cheap hotels, and rely on pre-packaged lunches, but this helped endear them to money conscious fiscal conservatives.{{ref|Ref}} The campaign was managed by seasoned professional Rick Anderson. Some Reformers had been annoyed that the moderate former Liberal and Ottawa insider had been made campaign manager, but he quickly proved highly able.{{ref|rick}}

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Over the course of the campaign Tory support steadily fell, lost to the Liberals, Reform, and the Bloc. The leaders debates were held October 3rd and 4th, and were generally regarded as inconclusive, with no party gaining a boost from them. The French debates were held on the first night. Unilingual anglophone Preston Manning read prepared opening and closing remarks, but did not participate in the debate itself.

Related Topics:
Leaders debate - Preston Manning

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By the last week of the campaign the Tories were considerably behind in the polls, and it looked as though the Liberals were headed towards a majority government. The main asset of the Conservatives was the much higher popularity of Kim Campbell over Jean Chrétien. Polling found that a considerable number of potential Liberal voters held negative opinions about Chrétien. Late in the 1988 campaign a series of attack ads had helped the Conservatives greatly, and Gregg and Tory decided to launch a series of commercials attacking Chrétien. The advertisements showed unflattering close ups of Jean Chrétien with lines like "I'd be embarrassed if he were Prime Minister." Many felt that the commercials were targeting Chrétien's facial paralysis, and they generated an immediate and severe backlash. Campbell overruled her campaign managers and orders the ads pulled, and Tory support fell sharply. Reform also found itself embroiled in controversy, when Toronto-area candidate John Beck made a series of anti-immigrant remarks and was accused of having links to Neo Nazi groups. Beck was forced to withdraw his candidacy.{{ref|Beck}}

Related Topics:
Attack ad - Series of commercials attacking Chrétien - John Beck - Neo Nazi

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