That scares me: "the people who follow NASCAR are our kind of people". The very idea of NASCAR fans running a country, any country, is absolutely terrifying.

I don't know Alan; the former CASCAR (now NASCAR Local Racing) had a pretty good rural following. There is a reason for NASCAR SpeedPark being an anchor store at the huge Vaughan Mills shopping mall; although unthinkable to us urbanites, hick culture is making inroads into the GTA.

I attended a few CASCAR races back in the late 90s; they were interesting enough and the number of visible birth deformities among attendees was low. It's a better strategy than going after Tamil Tiger and Hizballah fundraisers, but could easily backfire if said CPC-branded car gets involved in a spectacular and well-photographed crash.

So who, then, are they advertising to? The NDP NASCAR set seeking to swing their vote?

I don't think they're seeking to swing decided voters so much as staking a claim on something that none of the other parties is likely to embrace.

Don't know if you guys are familiar with a 1990 study that indicated that brand recognition was more powerful than your own sensory perception. Short version: Put crummy peanut butter in a name-brand jar, and name-brand peanut butter in a no-name jar, and people will pick the name-brand jar. Put the <i>same</i> peanut butter in three different jars and people will still say the name-brand one tastes better. When, objectively, it doesn't.

Anyway, that's a very long tangent to say that I'm sure this is just a branding effort and not anything meant to sway, say, a vegan bike commuter in Trinity-Spadina away from the NDP and into the Tory camp. That sort of radical change simply does not occur no matter whose logo you put on anything.

Then that is still odd - like their own sponsorship program. Efforts spent to sing to the choir. Lawrence Martin has a good head scratching essay (unlinkable) in the Globe today which goes some way to explain this odd behavior. A guarantee of minority status as one's gloden era.

Arch Tory that I am I can't help but think that the government has no business advertising....period. Maybe the occasional Forces recruiting campaign and tender notices but that should be about it.

The idea that a government is undertaking ongoing ad campaigns should, but does not, outrage people. Particularly conservatives; however, we are so used to the notion that it's just fine to pay for propaganda that no party is going to question the government's right to spend however much money they want on ad projects no matter how dumb or unnecessary.

Sigh.

Jay: it's not the government, it's the CPC doing the advertising.

Alan, the few CASCAR fans of my acquaintance were not in tune with the CPC choir. Most viewed the exercise of the franchise with heavy skepticism and did not bother to vote at all.

I should also note that they were uniformly IT professionals (one an ex-IBM vet like me), had nice homes (with in-ground pools), were not married to blood relatives, and generally had a thing for enormously powerful cars, trucks and motorcycles. Used to go golfing with them a lot, back in the day. Stock car / truck / bike racing has broader appeal up here than one might think.

Most NASCAR fans that know how to vote are already in the Tim Hortons and car crash camp already .. If they want to sway me, moderate liberal that I am, they need to understand that we spend our days in the office so desperately wishing we were adventurous sorts and could play Indiana Jones on weekends.. therefore, a CPC sponsored camp for disadvantaged yuppies in Alberta where we can ala Billy Crystal go be cowboys for a week a year.. Yep Hoss Harper, want my vote, start branding horses and let me drive cattle with that goofy old coot from Wild Rose..

David, my bad...

If the CPC wants to advertise on Pam Anderson's left nipple it's cool with me. (But it was a fun rant nonetheless.)

You know. My wife wrote off our second car this week.. For the price of a down payment on the new car plus the difference between insurance payout and lease payments still owed, Harper can put a C on my bumper for a year.