Wednesday, December 08, 2010

On tarnished brands

Eric rightly notes that the Liberal brand in Canada has been facing a serious downturn in fortunes over the last decade or so. But it's worth putting that decline in a wider context that looks even more dire.

After all, whatever problems they're having with their general brand, the Libs are in even worse shape in the other areas that would figure to drive voter preferences. When it comes to issue preferences, even their best showings are no better than their general voting support, while areas like health care and government services see them trailing the NDP. And to the extent leadership preferences are normally seen as a leading indicator for future voting intentions, the Libs particularly don't have much reason for optimism.

If anything, the Libs' brand looks to have stayed fairly strong in light of those failings on the federal level. But a brand can only hold up for so long when people don't associate it with much of anything positive - and in the Libs' case, there's reason to wonder whether it's already been damaged beyond repair.

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