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Political Branding in a Crisis and the Shifting Strategies of the Trudeau 2021 Campaign

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Political Marketing in the 2021 Canadian Federal Election

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management ((Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management))

Abstract

This chapter will explore the branding of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the 2021 campaign and the lessons from this for political branding in a crisis. It explains how the 2021 Liberal-Trudeau brand was visibly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was focused on the present, safety and protection, and while it retained an environmental focus it downplayed the part of Justin Trudeau himself while highlighting the weaknesses of the opposition. This did little to inspire voters already tired of living in a pandemic for nearly two years and support for Trudeau declined significantly between the call of the election and the final vote. The chapter therefore highlighted the challenges of political branding in a crisis and generates lessons both for Trudeau and political leaders around the world.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Jennifer Lees-Marshment & Salma Malik

Authors
  1. Jennifer Lees-Marshment
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  2. Salma Malik
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Lees-Marshment .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Journalism and Communications, St. Thomas University, Fredericton, NB, Canada

    Jamie Gillies

  2. Department of Communication Studies, Emerson College, Boston, MA, USA

    Vincent Raynauld

  3. School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    André Turcotte

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Lees-Marshment, J., Malik, S. (2023). Political Branding in a Crisis and the Shifting Strategies of the Trudeau 2021 Campaign. In: Gillies, J., Raynauld, V., Turcotte, A. (eds) Political Marketing in the 2021 Canadian Federal Election . Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34404-6_2

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