Behind the curve

The Hill Times reports on the Libs' plan to buy voter-targeting software. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is the fact that the Libs haven't done so already when considering how the price compares to other party expenses:

Jan Kestle, president of Environics Analytics, a company that provides voter-targeting services in Canada, said the cost of these type of systems can vary greatly depending on the scope and level of complexity and the amount of data inputted into the software.

"You might be able to buy just the software for $20,000, but what you need is a custom implementation of it with data and if you're counting the data charges it depends on which data you purchase to go with it. We have databases that focus just on demographics, others that focus on social values, others that focus on media behaviours, and depending on which of those you add you can get up into the $200,000 range, or you can do something for $50,000. If you buy a whole bunch of extra lists data, it could be even more than $200,000," Ms. Kestle said.

Now, those numbers might sound fairly large on their face, particularly for a party which has had to cut back in other areas due to its declining share of the popular vote.

But remember that the Libs would spent roughly $20 million on the 2008 federal election campaign - and in turn roughly half of that amount have been allocated to advertising. In that context, it seems shocking that they wouldn't yet have put a minimal investment into voter targeting which could help to better focus how the rest of their money is spent. And the longer the Libs wait to get even a basic targeting program in place, the more likely they are to keep sliding in their relative position.