1  2  3  4  Next

Conservative party is sponsoring a sport that burns leaded gasoline by the barrel.

The Tories announced this weekend that the party will sponsor a car in the Canadian NASCAR circuit in an effort to get the message out. It's an interesting gambit, NDP Leader Jack Layton said Monday, but not one that enhances the environmental credibility of the government.
"I know one thing's for sure is they'll now have their name on some of the emissions here in Canada and I'm not sure that was necessarily the wisest decision," Layton said outside the Commons.
"They already have enough emissions to be responsible for here in this House.”

Mon Jun 18, 9:06 PM
By Bruce Cheadle
OTTAWA (CP) - Government critics were agog Monday that the supposedly green-hued Conservative party is sponsoring a sport that burns leaded gasoline by the barrel.
The Tories announced this weekend that the party will sponsor a car in the Canadian NASCAR circuit in an effort to get the message out. It's an interesting gambit, NDP Leader Jack Layton said Monday, but not one that enhances the environmental credibility of the government.
"I know one thing's for sure is they'll now have their name on some of the emissions here in Canada and I'm not sure that was necessarily the wisest decision," Layton said outside the Commons.
"They already have enough emissions to be responsible for here in this House."
Competitive racers in Canada won an exemption from the ban on leaded fuels in 1994.
While Indy cars and Formula One cars managed to wean themselves off leaded fuels, NASCAR is only moving to end the reliance in 2008.
The Canadian fuel exemption for competitive racing expires next January, and Environment Canada put out a discussion paper last month asking for submissions on whether it should be extended.
Up to 40 per cent of the leaded fuel sold in Canada is used in stock cars, while another 40 to 50 per cent is burned by dragsters.
NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen noted that NASCAR vehicles get about two miles to the gallon.
"In a 250-mile race, that means they go through 125 gallons of leaded fuel, per car," he said.
"It's a stunt that could go very bad for (the Conservatives) if they don't think through what they're putting money into."
Green party leader Elizabeth May dryly noted that her party won't be entering a vehicle in NASCAR.
"It reflects the fact there is more money than sense in the Conservative party right now," she said.
"We would never be associated with the conspicuous consumption of leaded gas for the purpose of electioneering."
Ryan Sparrow, a spokesman for the Conservative party, said New Democrats will have to answer to automotive workers for their criticism of motor sports.
"They're casting doubt on the whole sport," said Sparrow.
But the federal Tories aren't just targeting the speed-demon demographic.
It turns out the party logo - a big blue "C" - appears on the hood of the car driven by Pierre Bourque, whose popular Internet news aggregator sells torqued headlines to political operatives.
Bourque's website confirmed the connection Monday, linking to a story by Inside Track Motorsport News that noted his Dodge Charger is the sponsored Tory vehicle.
As the Inside Track story states: "Bourque's popular Bourque Newswatch site is on the daily 'must-see' list of favourites for Canadian news and political junkies."
Research on the business model for Bourque Newswatch suggests the federal Conservative party has just guaranteed itself favourable coverage for the foreseeable future by sponsoring Bourque's hobby.
Past and current Bourque clients have confirmed to The Canadian Press that advertisers on the site can expect flattering headlines or links, or headlines and links denigrating their opponents.
The Conservative party refuses to confirm or deny that it employs Bourque's headline service directly. But months of negative headlines and links to scathing blogs about Liberal Leader Stephane Dion on Bourque Newswatch indicate someone with an axe to grind is paying the news aggregator, which openly advertises its headline service for sale.
"The fact that they're sponsoring a prominent media personality shows an error in judgment," said Liberal MP David McGuinty.
When the Conservatives announced the NASCAR sponsorship Sunday, they neglected to mention the sponsored vehicle is driven by Bourque.
Instead, the party's news release referred to Whitlock Motor Sports.
"This is a unique opportunity for the Conservative party to reach out to Canadians," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a release.
NASCAR has a big middle-class fan base that the Tories want to get their message out to.
Immigration Minister Diane Finley says sponsoring a car is a way for the Conservatives to tap into that following.
"The people who follow NASCAR are our kind of people. They're hard-working families, they're taxpayers who play by the rules. And those are the people that we're targeting," Finley told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

   

Don't worry,, like Avro said: We'll just plant some more trees.

I saw this on the news and although I don't really agree, it's their right to spend their money how they want.

By reflection, the Liberals and NDP supporting the Tamil Tigers, Hamas, and all the assorted nuts that live in Palistine sounds a whole lot more dangerous.

   

sure this isn't a traditional way for a political party to build support or place ads for the public to see.

theres really nothing wrong with this and nascar does have thousands of fans in canada.

did you have a problem only with the conservatives for sponsoring this car or a problem with the fact that nascar drivers use a lot of gasoline ?

   

How are political parties funded in Canada?

(serious question, I really don't know...)

   

mostly thru donations from supporters of the political party but now the parties also get a couple of dollars from the government for each vote they got in the last election.

the parties here do big fundraising events including dinners, speechs and special events, to get there supporters to come out and donate money.

   

Brenda:

National political parties raise funds for their own use, thru donations from their own supporters, but one person may only contribute a total of one thousand dollars per year, and corporations are limited to $10,000 per year.

National political parties also get research funds based on the number of Members of Parliament they have in the House. The sitting Government may allocate funds to promote Canada, both inside the country and overseas, thru various means, such as trade missions , and development of Canada's image/reputation as a manufactuer and exporter of high quality goods.

And finally, racing fuel has been UN_LEADED for about the past 10 years.

Jim B Toronto.

   

Thanks, Ryan and Jim

So it is not (much) tax-payers-money they put on the cars as advertisement I would say: great idea!

   

Well that leaves out the NDP and Liberals.

   

there shouldn't be any taxpayers money used for this , only conservative supporters money is being used i'd guess.

   

I would liken this financial support by the Conservative party of a Nascar race car , to the NDP giving money to support a "green peace " event. Or the Liberals holding a picnic for Hezbolah supporters , or the Tamil Tigers cricket team.

Fair play I say.

Jim B Toronto.

   

What irks me about this is not that they burn gas, it's that they burn leaded gas, the persistent, direct, toxic environmental effects of which are well known. Formula 1 burns just about the same gasoline we put in our cars. Indy burns ethanol and Champ cars burn methanol. These are the top racing leagues in the world, with the most highly tuned cars and engines. They make do without lead. Why is NASCAR still in the stone age?

   

Actually, yea, looks like they phased out leaded gas entirely in February of this year. Layton's gonna get some egg on his face on this one....

   

I can actually clarify things for you a bit, Hurl.

First off, there is no good excuse for NASCAR's continuing use of leaded fuel. That's just being honest.

They are, however, making the change to unleaded fuel next year. Better late than never, I suppose.

Secondly, NASCAR is fundamentally different from Formula 1, Champ and Indy because NASCAR is actually exploited by auto manufacturers as a testing ground for their automotive equipment. For the most part, the cars you see ripping around a NASCAR track are the same cars that people will be buying a few years down the road.

That being said, the high speeds that NASCAR drivers compete at shoot the fuel economy of the sport to hell. They could be a lot more economical by restricting the sport to highway speeds, but these cars look a lot less spectacular if they were puttering along at 60mph than they do at 170.


Aside from all of this, it isn't even good political strategy. Political advertising works best when there's a message attached to it, but it's hard to get your message across when you're just slapping your party logo on the hood of a car. It's not exactly like you can fit your party's entire platform there.

   

Has He's Voting for Oil ever actually participated in a thread it created after the initial post?

   

Not at all. The street versions that the NASCAR cars are based on are FWD cars with v-6 engines. NASCAR cars have small-block V-8s and use technology approximately like that last found in a mid-eighties pick-up truck. All that is remotely the same is the body style, and NASCAR teams even modify that to fit NASCAR templates.

Nothing about a NASCAR car is like the street versions and it hasn't been a valid testing ground since RWD v-8 automobiles became uncommon in the 1980's.

F-1, CART, and INDY arguably contribute a lot more to street car technologies because they use EFI, computers etc. to produce a lot of power with a relatively small engine. They also contribute to other areas of automotive engineering like ABS braking, traction control, and crush zones.

   

1  2  3  4  Next