The LPC Leadership/Policy Convention, Media Coverage and the post convention bounce.

It has been suggested that the Liberal Leadership/Policy Convention in Vancouver may turn into a love-in between the LPC and the media and I am sure that many Liberals are thinking and hoping that this indeed will be the case. With the mega media coverage that can be expected from an already friendly press it is easy to see how one could come to the conclusion that the convention will be a PR success, but this is not going to be an ordinary convention and in this case I think the that the more press that the convention receives the less likely it will be to see any type of post convention bounce in the polls.


Simply put I think that having Canadians watch the Liberals spending not only their supporters donations but also spending our money taken through income tax and given to the Liberals through mandatory subsidies on a needless leadership convention where the leader is already known and a policy convention that discusses no policy is not going to be a good thing for the Liberals.


The optics on this are going to be terrible and the more coverage the media gives to this pep rally disguised as an honest convention, the more of a bad taste it will leave in the mouths of those Canadians watching. With times being as tight as they are the sight of Liberal partying on our dime on live TV for no reason other than cheerleading is not going to win over much support from anyone, including that from usually Liberal friendly media.

Yes, I said it. Even the left leaning media are going to see that there is no upside for them in mindlessly promoting this big show of Liberal excess at a time that their own audience are going through tough economic times as well as the media themselves losing both revenue and audience in droves.


Since I am not able to tell the future with any great accuracy this is all just pure speculation on my part, but I see little in the way of upside for the Liberals in all of this, and even less so with wall to wall media coverage of what surly will be seen as a waste of time and money by the Liberal Party of Canada and their new leader Micheal Ignatieff. Oh and I don't think the near empty halls and venues are going to help much either.