[stacey]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Nope, none of those strategies would have done anything. A 'yeah, well the other guys just as racist/homophobic as us' line would have fallen flat. Nobody would have cared. Morton's an extreme social conservative, but we know enough about the rank-and-file of the PCs to know that he wouldn't be able to push that agenda within his party.

The WRP needed to be proactive, rather than reactionary. They needed to present not just a leader but a team of star candidates who people could get to know and say 'yes, I wouldn't mind these people running my province.' Such an approach would have largely mitigated offensive comments, because the public would be able to more easily dismiss them as a couple wingnuts.

Instead, the casual voter saw a picture of the Wildrose as Smith as a weak leader with a whole bunch of rednecks lurking in the weeds behind her, just waiting for her to lead them to victory. It wasn't as though this image only reared its head in the last few days of the campaign... this was a long-held suspicion about the party that was seemingly confirmed by these comments. Going forward, that element of party identity is something the WRP needs to confront head-on and aggressively, rather than hoping nobody speaks out of line and then responding weakly when they do.

I think the point in bold is so true...