Watching this campaign, it’s been interesting to see various media sources and blogs assume that Canadian voters are fickle, short-sighted, and simplistic when it comes to politics. When the Tories announced their GST rebate, the general consensus was “bad policy, good politics”. When the Liberals announced their hand gun ban, most people acknowledged it wouldn’t make a huge difference, but that it was smart politics. Yesterday, a very serious rebuke by the US ambassador, in respect to a comment the Canadian Prime Minister should not have made, was called “manna from heaven” for the Liberals.

So, this begs the question: How much credit should we give to Canadian voters? People who surf the blogs, read the paper, and watch the nightly news are fairly well informed – that’s a given. But what do people who aren’t as up to date on the issues of the day base their vote on? Are they influenced by “bad policy, good politics” politics as much as we think they are?