Political Marketing in the UK and Canada

Evan Gray

Through the lens of the Lees-Marshment framework, this article compares and contrasts the evolution of the British Labour Party from 1979 to 1997 and the Canadian Conservative Party from 2004 to 2006, finding many similarities between the two. Owing to their employment of the tools of political marketing, both parties would abandon ideological policies that notably deviated from those of the center, precipitating the defeat of their long-time incumbents.

Political science; party politics; political marketing Lees-Marchment; political marketing; ideological shifts; British Labour Party; Canadian Conservative Party; Thatcher; Harper