Letting the People Decide

Richard Johnston

This book explores the dynamics of political campaigns in general by attempting to make sense of the specific events of the 1988 Canadian election campaign. The authors had a sophisticated research design in place when the Canadian elections were called. For the sixty days of the campaign, they tracked responses that enabled them to answer such questions as: Do the various elements of a campaign - parties, leaders, issues, campaign rhetoric, debates, advertising, polls - make a difference in electoral results? How do perceptions of leaders affect the public's judgment on issues? How does national and electoral history affect campaign strategy? Their findings contradict those of many earlier studies and are likely to spark a lively debate and a new kind of research on such questions. The authors argue that the election of 1988 became, in large part, a referendum on the Free Trade...

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