Election gaffes from federal campaigns of years past

Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Thursday, Sep. 24, 2015

Stéphane Dion's CTV interview: Dion struggled with a question in a CTV interview before the 2008 election. The question was about the economy, and Dion appeared not to understand the question, then fumbled through an answer before asking the interviewer to start again. CTV broadcast the entire exchange, with fumbles, which suggested Dion was out of his depth.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/09/2015 (3660 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Stéphane Dion’s CTV interview: Dion struggled with a question in a CTV interview before the 2008 election. The question was about the economy, and Dion appeared not to understand the question, then fumbled through an answer before asking the interviewer to start again. CTV broadcast the entire exchange, with fumbles, which suggested Dion was out of his depth.

Robert Stanfield’s fumble: In the 1974 election, Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield played with a football during a stop in North Bay, Ont. One single fumble, however, was captured by a Canadian Press photographer, and the picture made it onto the front page of the Globe and Mail. The photo haunted Stanfield for the rest of the campaign, which he lost to Liberal leader Pierre Trudeau.

Stanfield is shown successfully catching a football (second from left) and fumbling a ball (far right and second from right) as he plays football during a campaign stop in North Bay, Ont., May 30, 1974. (Doug Ball / Canadian Press archives)

Gilles Duceppe wearing a shower cap: While visiting a cheese factory in Quebec in the 1997 election, Duceppe was photographed wearing a hairnet that resembled a shower cap. Cartoonists had a field day with the photo, which became an iconic image in Quebec.

Stockwell Day in a wetsuit: Stockwell Day, then leader of the Canadian Alliance (one of the predecessors of the current Conservative party), announced his run for prime minister by showing up to a news conference at a B.C hotel on a jet ski and wearing a wetsuit. It was completely unexpected and bizarre. The wetsuit was bought by Winnipegger Larry McIntosh, who donated it to Winnipeg Harvest.

McIntosh holds up Stockwell Day’s wetsuit. (Marc Gallant / Winnipeg Free Press)

Chrétien attack ad wins him sympathy: The Progressive Conservatives released an attack ad that appeared to mock Liberal leader Jean Chrétien’s partial face paralysis. Chrétien speaks disproportionately from one side of his mouth, and the attack ad seemed to centre on his partial physical paralysis, which was caused by an attack of Bell’s palsy in his youth. The Conservatives’ ad caused a wave of outrage across the country and even led many Tory candidates to publicly apologize to Chrétien and distance themselves from their national campaign. The PCs were reduced to two seats after that election.