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Political Science Elections

Shopping for Votes

How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them

by (author) Susan Delacourt

Publisher
Douglas & McIntyre
Initial publish date
May 2016
Category
Elections, Media Studies, Public Affairs & Administration
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781771621090
    Publish Date
    May 2016
    List Price
    $24.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781926812939
    Publish Date
    Sep 2013
    List Price
    $32.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781771621106
    Publish Date
    May 2016
    List Price
    $16.99

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Description

This 2nd edition offers an insightful and provocative look at the inside world of political marketing in Canada—and what this means about the state of our democracy in the twenty-first century—from a leading political commentator.

“Never mind what you may have heard about Canadians being hewers of wood and drawers of water. Forget all those endearing and enduring rural symbols that are supposed to bind the country together—the beavers, the moose, the Great White North. Canada is now a nation of shoppers … We may want to ask whether it’s time to draw some clearer lines between our civic life and our shopping pursuits.” —Susan Delacourt

Inside the political backrooms of Ottawa, the Mad Men of Canadian politics are planning their next consumer-friendly pitch. Where once politics was seen as a public service, increasingly it’s seen as a business, and citizens are the customers. But its unadvertised products are voter apathy and gutless public policy. Susan Delacourt takes readers into the world of Canada’s top political marketers, from the 1950s to the present, explaining how parties slice and dice their platforms for different audiences and how they manage the media. The current system divides the country into “niche” markets and abandons the hard political work of knitting together broad consensus or national vision. Little wonder then, that most Canadians have checked out of the political process: less than two per cent of the population belongs to a political party and fewer than half of voters under the age of thirty showed up at the ballot box in the last few federal elections. Provocative, incisive, entertaining and refreshingly non-partisan, Shopping for Votes offers a new narrative for understanding political culture in Canada.

About the author

Susan Delacourt is a senior political writer with the Toronto Star, formerly of the Globe and Mai, who has been covering Canada's capital since the 1980s. She has written three books -- United We Fall, Shaughnessy and Juggernaut -- and is a regular commentator on CTV and CBC. She is winner of the 2011 Charles Lynch Award, an annual award presented to a Canadian journalist in recognition of outstanding coverage of national issues as selected by their colleagues in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.

Susan Delacourt's profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, John W. Dafoe Book Prize
  • Winner, Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism
  • Short-listed, Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction

User Reviews

Canadian Politics and Marketing

I found this a fascinating read and gained new insight into how politics works in the modern world. The author's premise is that elections in Canada and elsewhere have evolved from old time politics to a marketing model. Indirectly, the book explains why events like Donald Trump's election to US president are not as surprising as we might think. Be sure to buy the updated version of the book, which adds an analysis of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's win in the 2015 federal election.