Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

A crowd-measuring contest (II)

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, April 8, 2011 1:21pm - 26 Comments

If Stephen Harper is still keeping score, he was decidedly outdrawn last night.

It was squeezing room only at the Liuna Station Thursday night as a crowd of nearly 1,000 people turned out to hear Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in an town hall-style campaign rally. That crowd was nearly three times the size of the audience that turned out for a much shorter rally with Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier in the evening.

More on the duelling rallies here and here.

Tags: election, Election 2011, Hamilton, Michael Ignatieff, Stephen Harper

More by Aaron Wherry

OriginalEmily1

This campaign isn't going at all well for Harper. LOL

Mummer2

In the end do you think it will make any difference?

OriginalEmily1

Campaigns always make a difference.

jonatwitan

Yes, but crowd draws to rally's are a decidedly small factor in overall campaign effectiveness. Did you see Paul's article the other day?

OriginalEmily1

No….it creates a band-wagon, momentum effect. Builds energy.

gottabesaid

Pfft. What a pro-Liberal non-story. So what if Iggy had a bigger crowd? Did you ever think, Mr. Wherry, that maybe that's because he was LETTING PEOPLE IN? I bet if Harper let people in he'd have big crowds too, Wherry. BE FAIR.

Andrew (not PorC)

The numbers are irrelevant, agreed. I take issue with politicians who are terrified of facing ordinary citizens who might not fawn over them. Harper is the only federal leader who exhibits this fear. That's noteworthy as it speaks to his character.
Desmond

Hey, don't forget Harper picked the fight in the first place by insisting he was drawing the biggest crowds. While you may be right and this may be closer to a non-story than anything, I'd consider it a problem if it weren't at least mentioned and Harper's 'mine's bigger' comment was allowed to stand. After all, not like it's a "news story". It's one paragraph.
andrew macgillivray

Yeah – and so what if the Liberals have more votes than the conservatives. The conservatives dhould form the government anyway. Right? To hell with democracy.

Karma

Sadly Weary the real count is in the polls, not one rally.
Michael Ignatieff will let anyone in to run alonside him as a candidate – that's been amply demonstrated. They include folks soft on crime and sexual abuse of women, those with dui issues and of course racists.
Jennifer Ditchburn outed folks in the biased press like you last night on P & P.
You are ensuring a Conservative Majority
Thanks and don't Weary, be happy!

OriginalEmily1

Ahhh so if a crowd of Canadian voters aren't at a Harper rally then they are clearly criminals, racists, sexists etc.

Great opinion you have of your fellow-Canadians.
Loraine Lamontagne

And it will be up to the people in those ridings to decide which candidate they want in the commons.

Meanwhile, Mr. Harper elevates persons suspected of electoral fraud to the Senate.
TimesArrow

Latest tory tps are: MI gets bigger crowds beacause he lets the scum of the earth into his rallies.

SH however screens for the righteous – obviously a smaller cohort.

If that opinion doesn't sum up the pent up resentment and pure malice of the truly convicted Harper fans i don't know what else does?

At least i know now what this election is about for some people…not better governance or respect for democracy…but an outright struggle for Canada's very soul. Jeez, i never for a moment ever dreamed it would come down to garbage like this in this fair country of ours..

andrew macgillivray

I couldn't agree more. There's no room for free thinking in the Con-Troll party,

Sally

Tom Flanigan.shot down Jennifer with about 2 sentences A Conservative who learned from his own inappropriate choice of words. Their isn't party that hasn't had someone regretting they opened their mouth before putting their brain in gear.
Proud Canadian

What government was the only government found in contempt in the commenwealths history? what government has more members criminally charged, under investigation, than any other, go ahead, say it, come on, you can do it…HAPERS GOVERNMENT! remember…

andrew macgillivray

Crazy that your point (which is true) has been lost in this election.

CAPS

The Showdown in Steeltown turned out to be no contest!

Talk about bringin' down "The Hammer."
http://halooverride.blogspot.com/ Halo_Override

You, sir, live up to your wallet.
Joy

How come there is no mention of the Liberal's cap and trade scheme in their Red Book? I'm talking to you media people. Shame.
Desmond

Well, technically he was being fair. And all parties screen, some are just more pathological about it.
jonatwitan

Iggy's rally was pretty good. It must be said though, that I don't think Harper would have any problem taking more questions if he was lobbed up some of the softballs that Iggy got last night.

andrew macgillivray

But he didn't take the questions. Thats the issue here. Why is he so afraid of the diversity of opinion in our country? Hopefully – everyone is different and we don't all wear crew-cuts like in the 50s.

Patchouli

Using the term "lamestream media" is…well…lame, right? Unless you're Kory Teneyke, of course.

Proud Canadian

Lamestream media is a Sarah Palin line.

NaiveMadHatter

Ignatieff is a picture of hope for our country. He is open, accessible and listens to what people are saying.

I only wish he would bring out the Gorilla in the Room and talk more about how he will restore the destruction already imposed on our government and pledge to open up things like the Access to Information System and even make it better so files can be instantly obtained instead of waiting for approval.

I would absolutely salute him if he created a system that all backup and calculation documents were available to parliament once the presentations are tabled and no requests for additional information would be necessary.