THE TEST OF INCUMBENCY:                         COMPARING THE 1991 AND 1996                    B.C. ELECTION CAMPAIGNS

DURING THE 1991 BRITISH COLUMBIA ELECTION campaign, questions were raised about the fairness of television's coverage of the Social Credit Party. The National Media Archive found that in that election campaign the Social Credit Party received the most attention and the most negative assessments. Criticisms of the Socreds outnumbered acclamations by more than two to one on BCTV and nearly three to one on CBC. In the 1991 election campaign, the NDP received less overall attention than did the Social Credit Party. Moreover, the balance of statements praising or criticizing the New Democrats were more often favourable than unfavourable. BCTV's coverage was almost twice as likely to praise the New Democrats as criticize them. Similarly, over half of CBC's coverage was favourable towards the NDP.

The negative attention given to the Social Credit Party was not seen as particularly unusual. Journalists often justify their negative attention to a party or leader on the basis that they are more critical of incumbents than challengers. The standard argument is that governing parties have a record to defend and that they are the subject of attack from all challengers.

The question that remained unanswered was whether this coverage was due to incumbency or a press corps hostile to the Social Credit Party. Before the 1991 provincial election campaign the Social Credit party was besieged with scandal culminating in the resignation of Premier Bill Vander Zalm. Much of the negative coverage of the Social Credit party was the reiteration of political scandals. For example, in the first week of the election campaign 81 percent of BCTV and 85 percent of CBC coverage focused on scandals and the strategies of the parties and their leaders.

To fully assess whether the 1991 coverage was fair it was necessary to wait until the next campaign where the NDP would be the governing party. The 1996 campaign not only had the NDP in government but it also had the NDP facing many of the same problems that haunted the Socreds. Just as Bill Vander Zalm before him, Mike Harcourt was forced to resign as premier amid political scandal. In each case the governing party entered the race with a new leader at the helm.

Click here to view Figure A: Attention to the Parties

These similarities present a unique opportunity to examine whether the media are truly objective and balanced in partisan politics or if there are some underlying political allegiances. To provide this analysis we compared CBC and BCTV's attention to the 1991 and 1996 B.C. election campaigns. UTV's coverage was also included in the analysis of the 1996 campaign.

Liberals receive most attention

Comparing television attention to the 1991 and 1996 campaigns shows that incumbency has less to do with the type of attention a party receives than we have been led to believe. In 1991 the governing Socreds received the most attention. Forty percent of CBC and 34 percent of BCTV total election coverage focused on the Socreds (see figure A). In contrast, 1996 shows the opposition Liberal party with the most coverage comprising 30 percent of CBC, 33 percent of BCTV and 31 percent of UTV election coverage. What accounts for the prominent play of the Liberal party? Traditional election analyses indicate that the party with the most attention is a party that has been in power. The Liberals have not formed a government in British Columbia since 1937.

In both election campaigns, the NDP received the second greatest amount of coverage during the campaign. Moreover, the NDP's share of election coverage from 1991 to 1996 on television news remained virtually unchanged. In 1991, the NDP received 24 percent of CBC and 21 percent of BCTV election coverage. In 1996 the attention to the NDP increased by only 2 percentage points on both CBC and BCTV.

Liberals receive most negative attention

Typically in election campaigns, the party that receives the most media scrutiny is also the party that receives the most criticism. By sheer volume, the Liberals received more criticism than any other party. Figure B isolates the amount of negative attention that the three main parties received on television. All the television stations focused more negative attention on the Liberals than any other party. In other words, 12 percent of the negative attention on CBC went to the Liberals, 8 percent went to the NDP, and 2 percent went to the Reform Party. On BCTV, the Liberals also received the most negative coverage with 13 percent; the NDP came in second at 12 percent and the Reform party received 3 percent. On UTV, the same pattern held with the Liberals receiving 11 percent, the NDP 9 percent, and the Reform Party 3 percent of total critical attention.

Click here to view Figure B: Who Got the Worst Press?

Nonetheless, in examining the balance of positive and negative coverage, the Liberals fared better than the NDP. As figure C shows, on CBC and BCTV, statements of criticism outnumbered those of praise for both the Liberals and the NDP, but by a greater margin in the case of the New Democrats. Attention to the NDP was 50 percent more often critical than complimentary on CBC and BCTV, while attention to the Liberals was almost 30 percent more critical on those stations. CBC provided more negative than positive assessments of the Reform Party, while BCTV's attention to that party was nearly balanced.

Click here to view Figure C: Assessment of the Parties

UTV balances coverage of all parties

The most distinguishing feature of UTV compared to BCTV and CBC was that it provided only slightly more positive than negative assessments of the Liberals and the Reform parties, and slightly more negative than positive assessments of the NDP.

Scandals absent from '96 election coverage

One significant difference between the 1991 and 1996 campaigns was the attention paid to the issues. Most dramatically, scandals played a much smaller role-virtually insignificant, in fact-in 1996 compared to 1991. Whereas in the 1991 provincial election campaign scandals comprised 6 percent of BCTV and 7 percent of CBC's overall coverage, in 1996 they comprised less than one half of one percent on either CBC or BCTV. UTV provided the most overall attention to scandals comprising three percent of its election coverage.

While in 1991 it was somewhat expected that the Social Credit party would receive negative attention because of the scandals that plagued it during that campaign, it was also expected that the NDP's bid for re-election in 1996 would be based on the same criteria. The Social Credit Party was damaged by the scandals associated with former premier Bill Vander Zalm. In this most recent campaign, the NDP was implicated in the shady dealings of the British Commonwealth Holding Society in an affair known as "Bingogate," and in the controversy surrounding B.C. Hydro. However, the latter issues did not hold the imagination of the local media as the Socred scandals had during the 1991 election. CBC made 29, BCTV 18, and UTV 97 direct references to Bingogate and Hydrogate and the NDP government. In 1991, CBC provided 463 and BCTV 399 statements regarding the Social Credit's scandals.

Far from being judged on Bingogate and Hydrogate, the scandals associated with the NDP barely registered in media coverage. Incumbency per se did not play a factor in journalistic pursuit of scandals. While audiences were primed to judge the record of the Social Credit party on the basis of scandals, they were not primed to judge the NDP on the party's shady fund-raising scheme. If incumbency were the sole reason for negative attention then the NDP should have suffered under the same critical scrutiny as the Social Credit party before them.

Leadership matters

The 1996 campaign focused most intensely on leadership. This is certainly not a new phenomenon in television coverage of election campaigns. Leadership has long played a dominant role in Canadian elections. While the 1974 federal election campaign saw inflation as the dominant concern, scholars agree that the Conservatives lost the election because Liberal leader Pierre Trudeau was perceived as having better leadership abilities than Tory leader Robert Stanfield. According to Lawrence LeDuc: "Such elements as Trudeau's personal popularity, the conduct of the campaign, and the uncertainty of the period of minority government all appear to have played some role in the outcome." [Lawrence LeDuc, "The Measurement of Public Opinion," in Howard Penniman, Canada at the Polls: The General Election of 1974, Washington: The American Enterprise for Public Policy Research, 1975, p. 241.]

Similarly, in the 1979 federal campaign, Liberal support was largely unrelated to economic issues. [William P. Irvine, "The Canadian Voter," in Howard Penniman, Canada at the Polls, 1979 and 1980. Washington: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981, p. 84.] In the 1980 federal election, while economic issues were the focal point-the budget, energy prices, Petro Canada and an 18 cent tax hike-the Crosbie budget and the tax hike were not responsible for the Tory defeat. Instead it was attributed to leadership. [Harold, D. Clarke, Jane Jenson, Lawrence LeDuc, and John H. Pammett, Absent Mandate: Interpreting Change in Canadian Elections, Second Edition. Toronto: Gage. 1991, p. 142.]

In the 1996 B.C. provincial campaign, while the B.C. Liberals received balanced assessments of their economic policy on CBC, they were criticized for their campaigning inabilities. The greatest liability was Gordon Campbell's leadership. Forty-three percent of CBC and 40 percent of BCTV negative attention to the Liberals' campaign were criticisms of Gordon Campbell. In contrast, only 30 percent of the negative commentary on UTV focused on leadership.

Some of the comments had to do with the likeability and typical trustworthiness issues that surround leadership. For example, on May 3, 1996, BCTV reported a poll that assessed the leaders. Anchor Tony Parsons asked this question to reporter Keith Baldry: "Keith, I think what this poll says tonight is that the Liberals have a definite leadership problem." Baldry's response was quite definitive: "It certainly seems that way, Tony. Gordon Campbell seems to be at this point a bit of an albatross around the Liberals' neck. Support for him has dwindled over the past few months. The more people see him compared to Glen Clark, the more his support drops."

Part of the negative attention to Gordon Campbell resulted from his earlier interview with UTV reporter Bridgette Anderson. Just as Liberal leader John Turner before him was haunted by the "bum-patting" incident in 1984, Campbell was considered overly friendly in 1996.

Ironically the offending incident occurred when Anderson asked Campbell about his image problem: "Today in Kelowna, he was back on the campaign trail trying to reshape his image. But that image may have suffered a setback when I asked him about the new Gordon Campbell. . . . Critics have said that you're not known as a very warm kind of human being. Are you trying to change that image?" Campbell responded by putting his arm around Anderson and saying: "I sure am Bridge, no question about that."

Although Campbell apologized for his actions, the incident was reported on all three stations. BCTV's Keith Baldry went so far as to say on May 10, 1996: "On to another topic, Pamela. Of course a lot of attention was paid to Gordon Campbell's economic plan, but it was somewhat overshadowed by an event involving Mr. Campbell on the campaign trail in Kelowna." While UTV and BCTV showed some restraint by placing this story after reports of the Liberal economic plan, CBC launched the night's news with the incident. In introducing the story, anchor Erica Johnson made this comment: "But no sooner had the Liberal leader taken his new image and tax plan on the road today than his campaign was on the defensive. One brief gesture almost derailed the day's closely scripted plan."

CBC and BCTV critique NDP economic policy

To be clear, although the Liberals received the most negative press, the NDP were not spared critical attention on CBC and BCTV. The difference was that while the Liberals were predominately judged on their leader, the NDP were judged on policy-economic policy. On BCTV, while the Liberals received the most attention on the campaign, it was the NDP that had the most economic news coverage. On CBC, the Liberals had a little more economic coverage than did the New Democrats. UTV gave the NDP half of the economic scrutiny of the Liberals.

Over twice as many assessments on CBC and three times as many assessments on BCTV of the NDP economic policy were negative as positive. For example, on the first day of the election, BCTV's reporter Clem Chapple had this biting remark: "All the usual secrecy and protocol surrounding provincial budget releases was cast off in today's efforts. Never before has the finance minister briefed reporters on the budget before reading the document in the legislature. But this is not really a budget; it's an elaborate election pamphlet full of pie in the sky."

In contrast, these television stations offered balanced opinions of the Liberal economic platform (see figure D). UTV balanced assessments of the NDP policy while they gave more favourable than unfavourable coverage of the Liberal economic platform.

Click here to view Figure D: Assessment of the Parties

BCTV praises NDP social policy

While BCTV was critical of NDP economic policy, it provided twice as many positive as negative assessments of NDP social policy. For example, on May 23 BCTV anchor Pamela Martin introduced a report focusing on health care with the statement: "It's time now to take a closer look at . . . who will best protect an endangered system of universal coverage that most people consider one of the best things about living in Canada." After reporter Mi Jung Lee profiled a man who had died of a heart attack after waiting for cardiac surgery for seven months, she stated: "Stark was one of 365 British Columbians waiting for heart surgery. The wait list has decreased 9 percent since the NDP came into power but for people like Jack Stark it wasn't enough." The report then examined NDP, Liberal, and Reform health policies.

In contrast to BCTV, CBC gave more negative than positive assessments of the NDP's social policies.

BCTV increases attention to issues in 1996

In the current U.S. presidential election campaign the American media is being chastised for perpetuating the trend of emphasizing reporters over candidates, process over substance, and scandals over policies. In contrast, the major British Columbian television outlets are rewriting the way election campaigns are covered. In both the United States and national Canadian election campaigns, as well as in the 1991 B.C. election campaign, the one thing that could be counted on was that the media would focus on campaign strategies, party and leader conduct, and events on the hustings. According to a Harvard study, the average length of a television sound bite shrank from 42 seconds in the 1968 election to under 10 seconds in 1992. [Kiku Adatto, Sound Bite Democracy: Network Evening News Presidential Campaign Coverage, 1968 and 1988, Joan Shorenstein Barone Centre on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Research Paper R-2, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, June 1990, p. 40.] Statements directly from politicians have been replaced by interpretation and analysis by journalists-not on the policies themselves, but on how the politicians and parties are waging campaign battles.

The media coverage of the B.C. election campaign resisted the trend in two significant ways. First, rather than decrease the politicians' sound-bites, the media increased them. Second, the media also increased coverage of the substantive issues, rather than decrease it, as has been the case in the U.S. and on the Canadian national level. This was especially true of BCTV. In 1991, BCTV provided only one-quarter of its election coverage to an examination of the issues; in 1996 it increased its attention to issues by 11 percentage points to well over one-third of election attention. CBC's coverage remained unchanged with 30 percent devoted to substantive issues. UTV paid the least attention to substantive issues in 1996 which accounted for 29 percent of total attention to the election.

As figure E shows, economic issues were the focus of CBC and BCTV discussions of the parties' policies, whereas UTV gave more attention to social issues than to the economy in its reports.

Click here to view Figure E: Television's Attention to the 1996 B.C. Election Campaign

It is noteworthy that the local television stations have only started to increase their attention to the issues. The issues still do not dominate local election news. Coverage of the campaign trail still dominated the news in the recent election campaign. Over half of CBC and almost half of BCTV and UTV attention to the campaign focused on the comings and goings of the parties and leaders. The bright spot was that issue coverage increased from the last campaign.

Liberals make the most statements

The Liberals made the most statements in tele-vision's portrayal of the campaign. Excluding statements made by reporters, the Liberals made or were attributed with 28 percent of CBC, 31 percent of BCTV, and 22 percent of UTV's election statements (see figure E). The NDP followed with 23 percent of CBC, 25 percent of BCTV and 19 percent of UTV statements. The other major player in the election campaign was the public. All three networks focused heavily on person-on-the-street interviews. CBC accessed public statements in 19 percent, BCTV in 12 percent, and UTV in 19 percent of its coverage.

Critics observed that during the 1992 U.S. presidential election, candidates were asked more probing policy questions by the general public in call-in programs than by veteran journalists. Tom Patterson, in his book Out of Order, notes that most of the substantive coverage of the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign was delivered by the "new media"-CNN, CSPAN, and talk radio. The "old media,"-i.e., network news-was so attuned to the strategies and providing the campaign behind the campaign that only 15 percent of its coverage addressed the issues at all. During the 1993 Canadian federal election campaign, the networks attempted to emulate the new U.S. media by providing forums for exchanges between the public and the politicians. CBC's "Town Hall" and "Voters Voice" segments provided such venues.

In the recent B.C. campaign, the networks did more than simply use the public to voice opinions; it had the public frame the questions. For example, each UTV newscast contained a "Q&A" segment in which a question was posed to the party leaders. On May 15, 1996, Eric Denison had the question of the day: "My name is Erik Denison. I go to a school in the Fraser Valley where there are more portables than actual school buildings. I want to know what you're going to do to alleviate the school overcrowding situation."

On BCTV, the questions were answered by candidates in the constituent's riding. On May 7, 1996, Raymond Isely of Richmond East asked whether or not the candidates supported harmonization of the GST and the PST. The Reform, NDP, and Liberal candidates each had an opportunity to respond.

All of these innovations have resulted in television stations getting closer to fulfilling the promises they've made at the commencement of each campaign: to cover the issues in order to enable the public to make an informed decision.

Click here to view Figure F: Election Sources

Summary of Television Coverage of the 1996 B.C. Election

Comparing television attention to the 1991 and 1996 campaigns shows that incumbency has less to do with the type of attention a party receives than we have been led to believe. In 1991, the Socreds, then the governing party, received the most attention by both networks with 40 percent of CBC and 34 percent of BCTV total election coverage. In contrast, 1996 shows that the opposition Liberal party received the most coverage comprising 30 percent of CBC, 33 percent of BCTV, and 31 percent of UTV election coverage. Traditional election analyses dictate that the party with the most attention is a party that has been in power. However, the Liberals have not formed a government in British Columbia since 1937.

Typically in election campaigns, the party that receives the most media scrutiny is also the party that receives the most criticism. By sheer volume, the Liberals received more criticism than any other party. In other words, 12 percent of the negative attention on CBC went to the Liberals, 8 percent went to the NDP, and 2 percent went to the Reform Party. On BCTV, the Liberals also received the most negative coverage with 13 percent; the NDP came in second at 12 percent and the Reform party received 3 percent. On UTV, the same pattern held with the Liberals receiving 11 percent, the NDP 9 percent, and the Reform Party 3 percent of total critical attention.

To be clear, although the Liberals received the most negative press, the NDP were not spared critical attention on CBC and BCTV. The difference was that while the Liberals were predominately judged on their leader, the NDP were judged on policy-economic policy. On BCTV, while the Liberals received the most attention on the campaign, it was the NDP that had the most economic news coverage. On CBC, the Liberals had a little more economic coverage than did the New Democrats. UTV gave the NDP half of the economic scrutiny of the Liberals.

Methodology on Local Television Coverage

Results are based on 124 CBC, 138 BCTV and 148 UTV local news stories from April 30 to May 28, 1996. All stories appearing on the 6:00 pm news hour on the election were coded representing a total population rather than a random sample of stories. Four researchers were employed in coding the news stories.

Further information or details on the coding design and methods used may be obtained by contacting the National Media Archive.

THE CHINESE AND THE CHINESE PRESS IN THE 1996 B.C. ELECTION             A Comparison of the Ming Pao, Sing Tao, and Vancouver Sun Daily Newspapers

IN THE RECENT B.C. ELECTION THERE WAS AN unprecedented awareness of the ethnic vote, and in particular, the Chinese vote. Seven political parties-the Liberals, NDP, Reform, Progressive Democratic Alliance, Social Credit, the Green Party, and the Natural Law Party-ran 13 Chinese-Canadian candidates.

The Liberals, with five candidates, had a campaign office set up for the exclusive purpose of attracting the Chinese vote. The NDP's Glen Clark declared, "Oh, it's [the ethnic vote] very important. There are a large number of Chinese-Canadians in British Columbia, and obviously we're working hard to try to communicate to them that the government's on their side." [Source: UTV Six O'clock News, May 6, 1996.]

B.C.'s Chinese community has existed for well over a century, but was often considered to be apolitical and, prior to 1996, the Legislative Assembly had no Chinese-Canadian members. Over the past five years the demographics of B.C., and in particular Vancouver, where the vast majority of immigrants settle, has changed dramatically. In 1991, there were 196,725 people of Chinese descent living in the province. Since then, over 100,000 people have arrived in B.C. from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, bringing the Chinese population to 300,000. [Source: Ministry of Finance and Corporate Relations, Province of British Columbia, B.C. Stats.]

Most of these immigrants move to Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, or, more recently, Coquitlam. In the 1991 census, and prior to the immigration swell, the proportion of Chinese in 14 B.C. ridings ranged from 9 to 32 percent. In 7 of these ridings the Chinese population exceeded the margin of victory during the last election.

Since 1991, 125,000 immigrants have become eligible to vote for the first time. In addition, the tenuous nature of democracy in both Hong Kong and Taiwan and the lack of democracy in China has resulted in many immigrants who are more appreciative of the democratic system and more politically involved than some long term B.C. residents.

Like most voters, B.C.'s Chinese population relies on the media for the vast majority of its political information. For the 250,000 Chinese living in Greater Vancouver, there are 3 Chinese daily newspapers, 2 Chinese radio stations and 2 Chinese television stations, as well as the English-language media. How does the Chinese-media political reporting compare to the English-language press? Which parties and politicians were profiled and what were the primary issues?

The study

To shed light on these questions, The National Media Archive expanded this year's B.C. election study to include two prominent Chinese dailies, the Ming Pao Daily News and the Sing Tao Daily, as well as the Vancouver Sun. These three newspapers are read by over 335,000 Chinese adults each week. [Source: DJC Research, Neilsen International, 1996: Ming Pao 126,000, Sing Tao 124,700, Vancouver Sun 87,120.] Ming Pao, a recent addition to the Vancouver media, caters to the newly-arrived and often wealthy immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan, while Sing Tao is generally the newspaper of choice for the established Chinese-Canadian community.

This study examined election reports appearing on the front page of these newspapers from May 1 to 28, 1996. The source of each statement, the political party being discussed, and the content of each statement was recorded in order to provide an overview and an analysis of the coverage. The Vancouver Sun provided 1,304 statements in their front page reports, while Ming Pao and Sing Tao provided 443 and 520 statements respectively.

Ming Pao reports on all main political parties

Name recognition is of paramount importance for any successful politician and, as such, a primary objective of all political parties is to obtain widespread media attention. Of the three newspapers examined, Ming Pao's election reports focused on the widest range of political parties (see figure G). In a campaign with 13 official parties, just one-half of Ming Pao's coverage focused on the frontrunning Liberals and NDP. In contrast, three-quarters of Sing Tao and three-fifths of the Vancouver Sun focused on the frontrunners.

Click here to view Figure G: Newspaper Coverage of the B.C. Election by Political Party, May 1-28, 1996

In Ming Pao, the Liberals received the most coverage, accounting for 27 percent of all election reports. The NDP were a close second with 23 percent of the coverage.

Other parties accounted for nearly one-quarter of Ming Pao's election coverage. The Reform Party was the focus of 11 percent of coverage, while PDA received 5 percent and Social Credit received 3.6 percent. The Green Party, with one Chinese candidate, received 2.5 percent of coverage.

Sing Tao focuses on the Liberal Party

Sing Tao focused its election reports on the Liberal Party which accounted for 44 percent of total coverage compared to the NDP which received 29 percent. Reform and PDA also received a substantial proportion of the coverage, accounting for 6.9 and 6.2 percent of the coverage respectively. The Green Party received 2.1 percent while Social Credit was mentioned only once. In total, attention to parties other than the main contenders accounted for 17 percent of Sing Tao's election coverage.

The Vancouver Sun's attention to the parties focused on the Liberals, the NDP, and Reform. The Liberals and the NDP received equal attention, with slightly over 30 percent each. Reform received 9.3 percent of total coverage. In the Sun's front page coverage, the PDA received only 1.3 percent of the coverage while attention to Social Credit accounted for 3.8 percent. All other parties combined accounted for 0.3 percent of the Sun's front page election reports.

All newspapers dedicate less than one-third of coverage to explaining the issues

All three newspapers focused their reports on the tactics of the campaign instead of explaining the issues. Profiling leaders and parties, reporting polls, discussing the horserace, and following the campaign trail accounted for over two-thirds of the reports in the three newspapers examined. Less than one-third of the coverage examined plans for governance and the platforms of the contending political parties (see figure H).

While the newspapers dedicated equal proportions of column inches to informing the voter about the issues, the coverage of the daily activities of the campaign differed significantly. Ming Pao focused on profiling the parties and general election statements which discussed when, where, why, and how to vote-information vital to the first-time voter. Sing Tao focused on party politics and profiling the leaders.

Click here to view Figure H: Newspaper Coverage of the B.C Election by Subject, MAy 1-28, 1996

In contrast to the Chinese papers, the Vancouver Sun spent less time discussing the parties and their leaders and more time reporting the campaign trail-the itineraries of the leaders and other candidates and the strategies of each campaign. The Sun also focused a significant portion of their coverage on polls and predictions.

Liberal party receives more positive press in Chinese papers

In both Chinese newspapers the Liberals received more attention and more favourable coverage than the NDP (see figure I). In Ming Pao, assessments of the Liberal Party were divided almost evenly between praise and criticism while assessments of the NDP were three-quarters negative. Sing Tao's coverage of the Liberals exceeded attention to the NDP by more than 50 percent and, similar to Ming Pao, a greater proportion of assessments favoured the Liberals over the NDP.

Click here to view Figure I: Newspaper Coverage of the Parties, May 1-28, 1996

Vancouver Sun balances attention to frontrunners in stories, favours NDP in headlines

In Vancouver Sun stories, attention to the Liberals and the NDP was equal as were assessments of the parties. Seventy-five percent of assessments of the Liberals were critical while 76 percent of assessments of the NDP were critical.

However, in the most critical component of the coverage, the headline, the Vancouver Sun favoured the NDP. Over the 28-day campaign, the Liberals and the NDP were mentioned in 30 front page headlines. Four headlines reflected favourably on the NDP while five were critical. Attention to the Liberals was not so balanced. Only 3 headlines reflected positively while 8 were critical. In the week before the vote, only one headline criticized the NDP while 3 focused on allegations of backroom deals between the Liberals and other free-enterprise parties.

Ming Tao headlines were usually neutral, neither condoning nor condemning the activities or policies of one particular party. Sing Tao was more likely than Ming Tao to focus on the parties and use vivid language in its headlines, but it did not give preferential treatment to any of the parties.

Click here to view Figure J: Newspaper Attention to Liberal Policies, May 1-28, 1996

Party policies receive different treatment

Turning to the press coverage of party policies, Ming Pao was the most consistently critical of all parties' platforms and policies (see figures J and K). In contrast, Sing Tao was highly critical of NDP policies, less critical of Liberal policies and more complimentary than critical of Reform policies.

The Vancouver Sun focused more reports on the NDP's policies than the Liberals', and basically ignored all other parties' policies. The NDP accounted for almost three-fifths of the Sun's discussion of party platforms, while the Liberals accounted for less than two-fifths. Reform's policies barely registered at 3.2 percent and no other parties' policies were discussed.

The Sun was slightly more critical of the NDP's policies than the Liberals', with 74 percent of assessments criticizing the NDP platform and 70 percent of assessments criticizing the Liberal platform.

Sing Tao focuses on Liberal economic plan, is critical of NDP budget

Gordon Campbell's economic plan was the focus of attention to the Liberals in all three newspapers. Sing Tao focused on the Liberals' promise to reduce income taxes by 15 percent. On May 2, 1996, Sing Tao ran two reports on the front page which described the Liberal's taxation policy.

While providing the most positive coverage of the Liberal's economic plan, Sing Tao was also the most critical of the NDP fiscal performance over the past term. For example, a May 1, 1996, story reported that "in the 1970s, if B.C.'s budget reached $1 billion, B.C. residents would be nervous, but now this amount is only enough to pay the interest on the provincial debt. Under the NDP administration, debt accumulated to $8.4 billion, an increase of 42 percent from 1991 when the NDP first came into power."

Sun critical of NDP environmental policies

While Ming Pao and Sing Tao focused on NDP economic policies, the Vancouver Sun reported on the NDP's environmental policies and plans for the fisheries. Environmental issues, including management of the fish stocks, accounted for over one-third of the Sun's attention to NDP policies.

For example, on May 13, 1996, Sun staff writers Brenda Bouw and Jim Beatty reported: "Premier Glen Clark's last minute plan to take control of the West Coast fishery doesn't stand a chance, says Federal Fisheries Minister Fred Mifflin. Reached at his Ottawa home on Sunday, Mifflin called Clark's plan political and illogical, saying B.C. has no constitutional jurisdiction to control the West Coast fishery." The Sun framed the story as an election report with a "B.C.'96 Votes" graphic.

Ming Pao asks questions on social issues

Social issues, primarily dealing with education concerns, multiculturalism, and equity comprised a significant proportion of Ming Pao's coverage of Liberal and NDP policies. For example, on May 22 and 23, Ming Pao asked the Liberals, NDP, and Reform for their position on multiculturalism and their plans for funding multicultural programs. The parties were also asked for their stance on employment equity, job creation, and other social issues.

Conflicting analysis of the Chinese vote

Eleven Chinese-Canadian candidates ran in Greater Vancouver, where, according to the 1991 census, the proportion of the population that is Chinese ranges from 12.8 percent in Vancouver-Quilchena to 31.4 percent in Vancouver-Kensington. Given the recent influx of Asian immigrants, the Chinese population in some of these communities may now be closer to 50 percent.

Two Chinese candidates were elected: the Liberal's Ida Chong in Oak Bay-Gordon Head (beating Elizabeth Cull) and the NDP's Jenny Kwan in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant. The other four Chinese-Canadian Liberal candidates placed second behind the NDP and narrowed the NDP's margin of victory from the last election. The remaining candidates received less than 10 percent of the popular vote.

On a May 12, 1996, BCTV instalment of the "New Voters" series, reporter Samantha Shatzsky contended that "Traditionally, the Chinese community has supported the Liberals in provincial elections."

Her views were backed up by Winnie Hwo of the Chinese television station, Fairchild TV. On the May 3, 1996, BCTV report, Hwo stated, "They [the Chinese] have this concept of fiscal philosophy . . . not to borrow money if you're not able to. . . . It looks like so far the Liberals in terms of the Chinese community seem to be the frontrunner."

This popular wisdom was challenged by a poll of the political views of the Chinese community co-sponsored by the Vancouver Sun and Ming Pao. When Canadian-born Chinese were asked "If the election were held tomorrow . . . which party would you vote for?" 34.1 percent of Canadian-born Chinese said they would vote for the NDP, while only 17.1 percent opted for the Liberals.

One of the more interesting findings-that Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan tend to support the Liberals while immigrants from China tend to support the NDP-was the headline in the May 24 Ming Pao story, but was not reported in the Vancouver Sun.

Ming Pao also reported that survey results show family income to be a deciding factor in voting intentions and party evaluations-respondents with annual household incomes in excess of $50,000 tend to support the Liberals, while middle income respondents evaluated the NDP more positively.

The Vancouver Sun focused on the fact that while the Chinese community gave the Liberal party an overall higher rating than the NDP, Glen Clark outperformed Gordon Campbell when asked to rate the leaders' ability to solve the province's problems. However, given that more respondents were "very dissatisfied" with Clark than with Campbell, the survey provides support for the theory that the Chinese community was as divided as the populace in general.

Similar to the English-speaking population, the information provided to Cantonese or Mandarin speaking voters was dependent upon their choice of media. Sing Tao, the more traditional and longer established of the Chinese papers examined, focused on the Liberal Party. Ming Pao, in catering to the recent arrivals to Canada, provided information on the widest range of political options and the workings of a democracy. Ming Pao also encouraged interaction between members of the Chinese-speaking community and the public at large through joint-ventures with the Vancouver Sun such as the sharing of letters to the editor. The Vancouver Sun's front page coverage essentially ignored parties other than the Liberals, NDP, and Reform, and while commentary regarding the policies of the frontrunners was equally critical within the stories, the headlines focused their criticisms on the Liberals.

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Last Modified: Wednesday, October 20, 1999.