Anything But Conservative - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Anything But Conservative ( or N'importe quoi d'autre que conservateur), also known as the ABC campaign, was a political campaign

Political campaign

A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...

in the 2008 Canadian federal election

Canadian federal election, 2008

The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the previous parliament had been dissolved by the Governor General on September 7, 2008...

encouraging voters to support any party other than the federal Conservative Party

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

. The campaign was established by Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

premier Danny Williams

Danny Williams (politician)

Daniel E. "Danny" Williams, QC, MHA is a Canadian politician, businessman and lawyer who served as the ninth Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador between November 6, 2003, and December 3, 2010. Williams was born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador...

and was targeted particularly within that province in response to what Williams has termed a broken promise by Conservative prime minister

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

Stephen Harper

Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...

regarding equalization payments

Equalization payments

Equalization payments are cash payments made in some federal systems of government from the federal government to subnational governments with the objective of offsetting differences in available revenue or in the cost of providing services....

to the province. The campaign has been estimated to have cost over $81,000.

The project was officially overseen by an organization known simply as "ABC Campaign", which was affiliated with the provincial Progressive Conservative Party

Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador

For pre-1949 Conservative parties see Conservative parties in Newfoundland The Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador is a centre-right provincial political party in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Originally founded in 1949 the party has formed the Government of...

of which Williams is leader, and which was registered with Elections Canada

Elections Canada

Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency reporting directly to the Parliament of Canada. Its ongoing responsibility is to ensure that Canadians can exercise their choices in federal elections and referenda through an open and impartial process...

as a "third party" for the purposes of election expenditures. The provincial government itself also paid for advertisements supporting the goals of the campaign.

The federal Conservative Party does not have any formal affiliation to the various provincial Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

parties (although there were ties with its predecessor, the federal Progressive Conservative). Nonetheless the federal and Newfoundland Conservatives generally got along well until the equalization issue, so the ABC campaign represented an unusual public rift. It has to be noted that Newfoundland provincial parties generally had a history of conflict with their federal counterparts; notably Brian Peckford

Brian Peckford

Alfred Brian Peckford, PC served as the 3rd Premier of Newfoundland. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservatives from 1979 until his retirement in 1989....

's dispute with Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney

Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...

over Hibernia oil, and Roger Grimes

Roger Grimes

Roger D. Grimes is a Canadian politician from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Grimes was born and raised in the central Newfoundland town of Grand Falls-Windsor....

' criticism of Jean Chrétien

Jean Chrétien

Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....

over a moratorium in the cod fisheries.

The ABC campaign did not specifically endorse any alternative federal party, and PC politicians campaigned on behalf of candidates for both the federal Liberal

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

and New Democratic

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

parties. The campaign was successful in the sense that the federal Conservatives were shut out of Newfoundland and Labrador in the 2008 election; nationally, however, the campaign had little effect, as that party was elected to another, stronger minority government.

Strategic voting

The "ABC" slogan became commonly used throughout the country during the campaign. A number of unaffiliated groups opposing the Conservatives' policies, including an environmental group calling itself "Project ABC", also used the slogan or similar sayings during the 2008 campaign. The anti-Conservative campaign also manifested itself in widespread promotion of strategic voting to minimize the number of seats won by the Conservatives. There were also online services organizing "vote swapping" to maximize the distribution of non-Conservative votes.

Background

Williams attracted national attention on December 23, 2004, when he ordered all Canadian flags removed from provincial buildings during a dispute with then Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

Paul Martin

Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

. Williams wanted the province to keep all of its offshore oil and gas revenues, along with equalization payments, an exception to the fiscal formula which clawed back equalization transfer payments to a province that had increased natural resources revenues. Martin largely gave into Williams' demands in late January 2005, supposedly due to an expected by-election (incumbent Liberal MP Lawrence O'Brien

Lawrence O'Brien

Lawrence David O'Brien was a Canadian politician.O’Brien represented Labrador in the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal from 1996 until his death in 2004...

was terminally ill) that would hold the balance of power for the Liberal minority government. After O'Brien's death, Todd Russell

Todd Russell

Todd Norman Russell is a Canadian politician and was the Liberal member of Parliament for the riding of Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador from 2005 to 2011.-Early life:...

retained the seat for the Liberals in the resulting by-election held on May 24, 2005, which helped to shore up the Martin government's tenuous position in parliament.

The agreement, known as the Atlantic Accord

Atlantic Accord

The Atlantic Accord is an agreement signed in 1985 between the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to manage offshore oil and gas resources adjacent to Newfoundland and Labrador....

, was unpopular in the rest of Canada as it was considered unfair to other provinces. It was particularly criticized by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty

Dalton McGuinty

Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....

. While Ontario was traditionally one of Confederation's "have" provinces, while Newfoundland was a "have-not", this has changed in recent years. McGuinty complained that his province - already sending more money to the federal government than it gets back in equalization payments - would get further shortchanged as the accord permitted Newfoundland to keep its oil revenues rather than sharing it with the other provinces. While the Accord did prolong the federal Liberal government's time in power, it was viewed as "short-term gain for long-term pain" as Paul Martin gained a reputation for doing or saying whatever was possible in order to stay in power, something that caused Ontario voters to become disenchanted with the Liberals.
On January 4, 2006, during the 2006 federal election campaign

Canadian federal election, 2006

The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...

, then-opposition leader Harper sent a letter to Williams with the following statement regarding equalization:
Harper began to distance himself from the statement that October. The subsequent 2007 federal budget

2007 Canadian federal budget

The Canadian federal budget for the 2007-2008 fiscal year was presented to the Canadian House of Commons by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on March 19, 2007. The federal budget included $14 billion in new spending and $5.7 billion in tax cuts...

ostensibly met this promise by introducing the option of a new equalization formula allowing each province to exclude its natural resources - but it also imposed a cap on the amount of equalization each province could receive, effectively negating the Atlantic Accord

Atlantic Accord

. The budget also gave each province the option of retaining the original equalization formula, meaning that no province would lose revenue due to the new formula. This budget was praised by Ontario Premier McGuinty, a critic of the Atlantic Accord.

Nonetheless, Williams said that, based on the restrictions imposed on the new formula, the province had been "shafted", and that "based on the fact that they've broken their promise and broken their commitment, [citizens] should not vote Conservative in the next federal election."

The campaign began unofficially in May 2007, when Williams told the Economic Club of Toronto

Economic Club of Toronto

The Economic Club of Canada is a non-profit, non-partisan speaker’s forum based in Canada. The organization meets three times a week and provides a platform for key policy makers and business leaders...

that the decision would cost the province billions of dollars, adding: "I am encouraging Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and Canadians, in the next federal election to simply vote ABC — easy to remember. Vote ABC — anything but Conservative." Harper and Newfoundland opposition leader Gerry Reid

Gerry Reid

Gerry Reid was the Leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador. He initially served as interim leader from 2005 to 2006, until Jim Bennett replaced him in February 2006...

criticized Williams' "overreaction", saying "this kind of confrontation is damaging the business investment climate of Newfoundland and Labrador".
Nonetheless in the provincial election

Newfoundland and Labrador general election, 2007

The 47th Newfoundland and Labrador general election was held on October 9, 2007 to elect members of the 46th General Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador, the 18th general election for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.-Campaign:...

held that year, Williams led the Conservatives to a resounding victory, capturing 44 of 48 seats in the legislature at the expense of the Liberals and NDP.

Political parties have in the past mounted similar campaigns to sway voters against a particular party, such as that conducted during the 2001 Alberta provincial election

Alberta general election, 2001

The Alberta general election of 2001 was the twenty-fifth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on March 12, 2001 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....

when Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper

led the National Citizens Coalition

National Citizens Coalition

The National Citizens Coalition is a Canadian conservative lobby group that campaigns against public services, trade unions, and in favour of smaller government and lower taxes. Incorporated in Ontario in 1975, the NCC was founded by insurance agent Colin M. Brown, who began an advertising...

(NCC) in a "Vote Anything but Liberal" campaign.

2008 federal election

At the start of the 2008 election, a campaign website was launched, while members of the provincial PC caucus campaigned on behalf of federal Liberal

Liberal Party of Canada

and NDP

New Democratic Party

candidates. All caucus members were expected to participate in the ABC campaign, with the exception of the backbencher (and one-time health minister) Elizabeth Marshall

Elizabeth Marshall

Elizabeth Marshall is a Canadian politician and member of the Senate.From 2003 to 2010, she represented the riding of Topsail in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador...

, who said she could not bring herself to support a Liberal or NDP candidate. No provincial PC politician openly supported the federal Conservatives during the 2008 campaign.

On a campaign visit to the province, Harper responded that "no one can tell a Newfoundlander and Labradorian how to vote," and that the voters' choice should be "about your own best interests."

Leo Power, a veteran of federal politics and the Conservative Party of Canada's campaign co-chair for Newfoundland and Labrador, said raising money and recruiting volunteers has proved difficult, and blames Williams's ABC campaign, saying it has cut deep into the federal election machine that was struggling to compete. Power has also said his party's best hope of winning a seat in the province was in the riding of Avalon

Avalon (electoral district)

Avalon is a federal electoral district in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004.-Demographics:Ethnic groups: Languages:² Unemployment: 25.9%...

with incumbent candidate Fabian Manning

Fabian Manning

Fabian Manning is a politician in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Manning served as a Progressive Conservative and later as the independent Member of the House of Assembly for the district of Placentia and St. Mary’s from 1999 to 2005. From 2006 to 2008 he was the Conservative Party of Canada...

.

While there was "anyone but Harper" activity stemming from a variety of sources across the country, the ABC campaign's national presence was limited to media interviews and a billboard on the Gardiner Expressway

Gardiner Expressway

The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, colloquially referred to as "the Gardiner", is a municipal expressway in the Canadian province of Ontario, connecting downtown Toronto with its western suburbs...

in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

; Williams did not travel across Canada as he had previously suggested. The Newfoundland and Labrador portion of the campaign was successful; of the province's seven seats in the House of Commons, the Liberals won six while the NDP won one, with the Conservatives being shut out. Nationally, the campaign had little noticeable effect; the federal Conservatives were elected to a second consecutive minority government, with more seats than in the previous parliament, including gains in Ontario (whose politicians had been most critical of the Atlantic Accord).

2009 Budget

Williams argued that the federal Conservative government's changes to equalization payments would cost Newfoundland $1.6 billion over three years, as it removes the ability of the province to choose whether to sign on to previously announced equalization policies. However, the budget passed in February 2009, with the support of the official opposition Liberals led by Michael Ignatieff

Michael Ignatieff

Michael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011...

.

Williams unsuccessfully lobbied the Liberals to remove the changes to equalization, but Ignatieff refused, saying "I'm not in the business of carrying Premier Williams' water. He has to understand that I have to represent Canadians from coast to coast to coast and from all provinces". St. John's

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...

mayor Dennis O'Keefe

Dennis O'Keefe (politician)

Dennis O'Keefe is the 14th and current mayor of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.O'Keefe was elected to municipal politics in 1997 as a councillor at large and was subsequently re-elected to the position in 2001. In 2005 he was elected Deputy Mayor of the city and held that position...

suggested that the Liberal MPs from Newfoundland would be committing "political suicide" if they followed the party line on the budget.
Ignatieff permitted the six Newfoundland Liberal MPs to break with party discipline and vote against the budget.

Williams' position was supported by one other provincial premier, Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...

's Robert Ghiz

Robert Ghiz

Robert Watson Joseph Ghiz, MLA is a Canadian politician who has been the 31st Premier of Prince Edward Island since 2007...

. Williams was disappointed by the lack of support from other provinces, saying "This is a great country and I want to be part of it, but the country disappoints me when we don't rally to protect each other."
Williams retired from politics on December 3, 2010. In the 2011 federal election, whilst the Conservatives only gained a single seat Newfoundland and Labrador (likely as a result of the changes to equalization), they won enough seats elsewhere (particularly Ontario) to form a majority government.

External links

VoteABC - Blog supporting ABC campaign

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