Memo to Kellie Leitch: Don’t copy Donald Trump

[Oscar]

Memo to Kellie Leitch: Don’t copy Donald Trump

[ http://www.hilltimes.com/2016/11/17/mem ... L_CAMPAIGN)&goal=0_207adb2c89-e98cf26be4-90669285&mc_cid=e98cf26be4&mc_eid=37c29b0f13 ]

Can the same divisive rhetoric Trump employed resonate with more than a sliver of Canadian voters? Far-fetched, at best.

Kellie Leitch, left, aligning her political aspirations with Donald Trump’s surprise presidential victory in the hopes of replicating his success in Canada will end only in defeat and disappointment, argues Evan Sotiropoulos. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright & photograph courtesy Gage Skidmore

By EVAN SOTIROPOULOS PUBLISHED : Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 6:55 PM

TORONTO—A 2010 Stanford business school study argued that negative product reviews actually increase sales for a company when it is relatively unknown. This is because, the argument goes, any publicity increases product awareness (although negative reviews for well-known products have the opposite effect). “This suggests that whereas the negative impression fades over time, increased awareness may remain,” explained one of the study’s authors.

This seems to be the approach—hope—of the relatively unknown Kellie Leitch and her campaign to become Conservative Party leader. There must be a blind, uncritical acceptance of the idea that all publicity is good publicity. Otherwise, what explains the ongoing negativity surrounding the former minister of labour and status of women, who recently defended herself by declaring, “I am not a racist.”

While her campaign’s strategy to control the narrative and increase her popularity is working for now, it has also cost her a number of high-profile supporters in what’s been a rather uninspiring leadership race to date.

Even so, aligning her political aspirations with Donald Trump’s surprise presidential victory (which she described as an “exciting message that needs to be delivered in Canada as well”) in the hopes of replicating his success in Canada, will end only in defeat and disappointment.

MORE:

[ http://www.hilltimes.com/2016/11/17/mem ... L_CAMPAIGN)&goal=0_207adb2c89-e98cf26be4-90669285&mc_cid=e98cf26be4&mc_eid=37c29b0f13 ]