Canadian internet news entrepreneur / race car driver Pierre Bourque debuted a new sponsor in Sunday's NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Mosport International Raceway. Bourque's Dodge Charger stock car sported a large Conservative Party of Canada logo on its hood.
Bourque's popular Bourque Newswatch site is on the daily 'must-see' list of 'Favourites' for Canadian news and political junkies. In Sunday's race, the Ottawa racer lined up 23rd in the field of 29 for the 51-lap chase around the legendary 10-turn road course, located northeast of Oshawa, Ontario.
Bourque rode a consistent race to a 13th-place finish in the Father's Day event. Several prominent Tory MPs - including some federal Cabinet Ministers - were on hand at Mosport to cheer on their driver, who will also carry CPC support in three other events this season (Edmonton, Trois-Rivieres & Montreal).
In the United States, it isn't unusual for politicians and political parties to sponsor NASCAR race teams. The term "NASCAR dads" was coined to represent a coveted demographic in the lead-up to elections.
Posts
12 comments:
Interesting quote in the Globe & Mail story on this sponsorship, from an egghead at Wilfred Laurier University. The quote shows amazing disdain for a large group of Canadians.
David Docherty, a professor of political science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., said, "when I sit down on my couch with my chewing tobacco and some Mickey's Big Mouths to watch the NASCAR, I am doing that in my leisure time and the last thing I want to be reminded of is politics."
Nice of him to leave out the the 'wife beater' shirt and the pickup truck.
Can you imagine making a sweeping, derogatory statement about any other identifiable group in this country?
... "When I sit down with my poutine and smokes to watch a hockey game..." or "When I sit down with my fiddle and 26er of screech to watch curling..." or "When I sit down with my curry and finger cymbals to watch a cricket match..."
But for some reason, I don't think the professor would make such statements about any group other than 'white' males. Must be a Liberal....
Geez.... is the latte group feeling the pressure of being overshadowed by normal folks??
Docherty..an obvious Diononian, (I made up that word),is a prime example of the Liberals distain for normal hard working Canadians!!
Geez.... is the latte group feeling the pressure of being overshadowed by normal folks??
And here's the "reality as a cartoon" perspective that this type of thing is intended to re-inforce.
Canadians are either weird latte-sippers (who don't work, of course) or "normal" NASCAR fans, who are the only ones who have jobs.
On planet "RealityCheck" anyway.
I wonder if Dr. Docherty's description of NASCAR fans as beer guzzling, tobacco chewing couch potatoes is a stereotypical perspective of most Arts Faculites in Canadian Universities, or is his disdain for "average Canadians" a special talent?
http://tinyurl.com/2ok95m
I wonder if the Dean of Arts at WLU did his PhD thesis on "Snearing Snobbish Scholars - The Scourge of Modern Society".
Interesting sponsorship approach. I'm not sure how this expands the Conservative base, though perhaps it is expected to make inroads into the Bloc holding in Quebec.
This seems like a potentially risky play, given the Conservatives portrayal of themselves as Canada's best environmental guardians. A NASCAR sponsorship might be perceived as a little off-message in that respect.
Interesting again...Canada's national newspaper omits the fact that the driver, Pierre Bourque,is best known as Canada's National news aggregator/blog.
And yes...a must read.
Even funnier... Canada.com has a story on the wire (http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=bf29da0c-5577-4943-b6d1-d404088c3312&k=44455) in which the writer does a 'tisk tisk' on the Tories, for not saying they were sponsoring Pierre Bourque.
"When the Conservatives announced the NASCAR sponsorship Sunday, they neglected to mention the sponsored vehicle is driven by Bourque."
Speaking of a lack of disclosure, the CANADA.COM story neglects to mention that Pierre Bourque's other main sponsor is... CANADA.COM.
To quote the author, I'm "agog."
gregm ...I don't get you. The car has a sponser, the CPC. Bourque drives the car ( this season at least) CPC didn't sponsor Bourque. Why is something amiss?
kennyb210,
I was merely poking fun at Canada.com. In the story, the author went out of his way to point out that the Tories didn't mention their sponsorship of Bourque (by name) in their release.
It's a case of the 'pot calling the kettle 'black'' that nowhere in the Canada.com story did they mention that THEY are also on the car. If we're complaining about lack of disclosure, canada.com should look in the mirror.
As for the sponsorship, I'm all for it. Bourque needs money to make his car go. His car is merely a moving billboard. Political parties buy ad time on TV and radio all the time and there is never any implied political support by them just because they run political ads. How is this any different?
As for Liberals getting all worked up about a news site being associated with a political party.... PUHLEEEZE..... The CBC and the Toronto Star function as the PR wings of the Liberal Party and no one seems to mind.
Regarding your statement, "The car has a sponsor, the CPC. Bourque drives the car ( this season at least) CPC didn't sponsor Bourque."
... I don't believe that is correct. Bourque rents a car from Whitlock Motorsports for a set price. It is up to Bourque to defray those costs by getting sponsorship for the car and himself (The 'C' logo is on his driving suit, too).
In my discussion with Pierre on Sunday at Mosport, he made it very clear that the deal with the CPC came to pass solely because of his efforts (not the team's).
A final note... I don't see this as anything close to the Liberal Adscam sponsorship scandal that involved the sponsorship of Canadian car races. Apples and oranges.
The Canada 'wordmark' campaign intended to bolster national unity involved taxpayer dolllars. I don't think anyone had an issue with the goals of the program. It was just the little brown envelopes being passed around among Liberal friends that became a problem (for the Liberals).
If the Tories want to spend their own money to promote their brand - be it on TV, on the radio, in newspapers, or on the side of a racecar - I can't for the life of me see what 'the scandal' is.
On a lighter side!!!!!
Government creates a great deal of stress on the working class, due to their decision making and outrageous taxation, that is harmful to the health of the average Canadian citizen. Should they not be banned from advertising similar to the banning laws of tobacco companies.
GregM..thanks for the reply and more info..I was confused.. it looked to me like Bourque was being dragged into the story...I thought sponsorship money would only go to the "car"...not the driver.
Interesting set-up between the dealership and racing.
I also thought I was replying to a comment not the author. Sorry bout that...I get worked up and start sounding like Wm. Shatner..or so I'm told..
Love racing...all for sponsors..
ps.
"I don't see this as anything close to the Liberal Adscam sponsorship scandal that involved the sponsorship of Canadian car races. Apples and oranges"
Very interesting..didn't know Adscam had bad money in races..
I am an orange by the way..
Post a Comment