'Trying to steal back voters': Strategists weigh in on Liberal budget messaging plan
CTV
The Liberals are deploying a new pre-budget marketing strategy that will see most of the upcoming federal budget announced before it is actually tabled in the House of Commons on April 16.
The Liberals are deploying a new pre-budget marketing strategy that will see most of the upcoming federal budget announced before it is actually tabled in the House of Commons on April 16.
Kicking off this week with renter-fairness and child-care affordability announcements, and coinciding social media video featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledging to Canadians under the age of 34 that the overall theme for the 2024 budget will be "generational fairness," the Liberals have two weeks of news conferences ahead.
Practically every day between now and when Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland releases the massive economic document, the Liberals are expected to tease out bits and pieces in an effort to stretch out their ability to market the measures within it to millennials and Generation Z.
On this week's episode of CTV's Question Period with Vassy Kapelos, the weekly Sunday Strategy Session panellists weigh in on whether the change in fact will pay off for the Liberals.
Scott Reid, CTV News political analyst and former communications director to former prime minister Paul Martin, said this kind of strategy has been employed by past federal governments to dominate news cycles for weeks, but this time the Liberals appear to be trying to "fortify themselves demographically, electorally, against the voters they're worried about losing."
"The Liberals are openly saying they're going after younger voters. And even though this seems like an offensive strategy, because they're going out there and pre-marketing the items, it therefore sounds to me like it's actually defensive," Reid said.
"Because if you're going to be focusing on younger voters … you're really trying to hold your own against the NDP. That isn't trying to steal back voters that have drifted over to the Conservatives."
