Thread by @sunnshiiny

Opposition parties are using extreme populist rhetoric to garner support for their party. Intentionally spreading disinformation and false narratives to garner support for their party. Political campaigns are using multiple negative campaigning techniques.

I listened to Jagmeet Singh in Brampton on CBC this AM. He blames 5 LPC MP’s for lack of a new hospital. Blames the LPC for “hallway medicine.”

Does the average Canadian not understand different jurisdictions & purview of Federal/Provincial govt responsibility?

Does Singh not realize healthcare is provincial purview? Of course he does. But he’s counting on the Canadian voter to be confused between the two levels of government purview.

Multiple tweets of progressives reveal this is a real problem.

Large numbers of citizens are unaware that federal govt provides money transfers for Health services, provinces deliver Healthcare.

The federal government doesn’t set provincial priorities. It helps fund them.

If a new hospital is required in Brampton, the province of Ontario identifies it as a priority, not Liberal MP’s. Otherwise, the MP’s are interfering in provincial jurisdiction and purview. MP’s can support a hospital once it’s identified by the province & funding sought.

Last time I checked, the Ontario provincial government of Doug Ford has refused all infrastructure funding. Refusing to work with LPC federal government. Preferring to wait until CPC is govt and will help install private healthcare as a feature, not merely an option.

Federal MP’s can advocate for the funding approval for their community, once it’s been identified, by the province. But it’s provincial jurisdiction to determine priorities and infrastructure required, not a federal role. LPC has offered funds, but Ford refuses them.

Jagmeet Singh is playing to voters unfamiliarity and confusion between federal & provincial jurisdiction and purview. This is called gaslighting & is an extreme populist approach; assigning blame to the federal govt for provincial responsibilities.

The same approach has been used by NDP with Grassy Narrows.

Addressing the toxic contamination is a provincial responsibility, which LPC govt has offered financial backing. Ford refused funds. But Singh, Angus, Ashton & a multitude of NDP pundits continue to assign blame to LPC.

Ethical leadership would educate the public, not assign blame to a political opponent, in the lead up to & during an election campaign.

Considering all the smug moralizing NDP does, the current party leadership is severely lacking in moral grounding. But it’s more than that.

The strategy to increase public confusion regarding fed/prov purview, coincidentally, is also the fed/prov Conservatives strategy.

Interesting that the two most disparate parties ideologically are attacking the LPC with similar forms of intentional disinformation.

One might wonder if it’s a coordinated strategy, since provincial conservatives are attacking federal purview and NDP are attacking the government’s lack of action on provincial purview. Is this a weird coincidence?

Several coordinated episodes have occurred, over the last 6 months, from both far left & right ideological camps. Many FN & labour/union headline grabbing interruptions of events the PM has attended are interspersed between Premiers court challenges of carbon levies.

The two seem unrelated. But both emerged around the same time. Dividing the nation into ideological tribalism.

This pincer attack tactic has been identified & documented by EU as a strategy of Russian interference in Eastern European national elections.

It’s also been identified as the strategy that was used to aid Trump’s 2016 Presidential election win.

Jill Stein & Bernie Saunders were the far left political candidates that fomented deep divisions in the beliefs and values of the American electorate.

Both Stein & Saunders used excessive populism to deliver their narrative, as well as Trump & Republican candidates. It created deep divisions that continue to plague the American political ethos. That ideological divide is also influencing Canadian political environment now.

The Canadian political system is different from the American system. Canadian party leaders are not elected by a separate vote. So the strategy has been modified to fit the voting system & form of Westminster Parliamentary system used in Canada.

US had 2 Presidential candidates attacking from the left with populist rhetoric, Canada has two political parties and many prominent NDP & GPC candidates using extreme populist rhetoric & intentional disinformation. All at the same time that CPC is doing so from the right.

This phenomenon (attack from both sides of the political spectrum) is NOT a weird coincidence. Its a pincer attack & the method currently being used globally to secure far right electoral wins. It works in either a FPTP or PR voting system.

This is the Finkelstein Method. Negative campaigning. Happening in Canada, right now, during the election period.

Follows: a list of negative campaign techniques that all will recognize and continue to be subjected to for the remainder of the campaign.

Time to get familiar with these techniques and to check every politician’s rhetoric before believing anything they say, including LPC. Once you are familiar with these techniques, it becomes easy to recognize them in action.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_…

Attack ads & Contrast ads
Dirty Tricks
Third Party Lobbying
Push Polls

All described in the Wikipedia article attached above under the heading Techniques.

There is also the use of Idealization & Devaluation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealizat…

Minimization. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimisat…

Setting Up to Fail. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setting_u…

Social Undermining. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_un…

Tu Quoque. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

Clean Hands. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_han… (SNC scandal)

False Equivalence. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equ…

Projection. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycholog…

Two Wrongs Make a Right. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_wrong…

Victor’s Justice. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor%27…

Whataboutism. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whatabout…

Ad Hominum. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

Magical Thinking. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_t…

There’s lots more. Negative campaigning works. That’s why it’s used.

Now read this letter and see how many of these techniques you can find. I found several.

https://twitter.com/jkenney/status/1172259924614602752?s=21