If you want to feel wanted, give your email address to a political party. Or, better yet, give your address to all three major federal parties and watch them compete for your attention. To be emailed on a regular basis by the party machines is to understand politics as a competition of great consequence. Your side needs you. And, if you act now, they’ll throw in this free “limited edition” T-shirt.
All major parties have joined the permanent campaign and the demand for money is relentless. In 2013, the Liberals and New Democrats set new annual party records for funds raised, while the Conservatives enjoyed their best non-election year. Altogether, the three took in just less than $37.6 million (the Greens raised another $2.2 million, their own record). And perhaps the cheapest way for them to find that money is to send an email, or several.
Over the last two months, the three major parties have collectively sent more than 60 emails to subscribers. Last week alone, the NDP sent out 10 emails, while the Conservatives fired off five of their own. “If we don’t win the next election, the NDP and Liberals are promising to undo everything we’ve worked to accomplish, ” one Conservative email warned. Another touted a recent column in the Toronto Star as proof that “the urban media elite are mobilizing against us.” That same day, the Liberals told their supporters that the Conservatives had raised millions more than they had so far this year. The day before that, the NDP told their supporters that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was charging $1, 000 for a ticket to one of his fundraising events, but New Democrats were rallying together their small donations: “That’s what this is all about: people like you, chipping in what you can to build this campaign from the ground up, not the other way around.”
Every team is the underdog. An NDP email in July noted how much more the Liberals and Conservatives were spending on advertising, and boasted, “We don’t count on easy money from well-connected friends or rich insiders.” The Conservatives have fretted that, “In the next election, we won’t be fighting just the Liberals and NDP—we’ll be up against the Ottawa media, the union bosses, and the radical left.” A Liberal email in late July, entitled “Bad news, ” explained that the last fundraising results for the Conservatives were “scary.” “Justin Trudeau needs your help to build the team and the plan for Canada. Let’s show him we’re ready to do everything it takes for our country’s future, ” the note read. (The Conservatives subsequently sent out an email telling their supporters about the Liberal email as a warning that the Liberal party would now be “digging deep to try to get an advantage over us.”)
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