Campaign Dynamics in the 1997 Canadian Election

The paper uses the 1997 Canadian Election Study (CES) to determine whether there were significant dynamics in the 1997 Canadian election and to provide an assessment of the two key events of the campaign: the televised leader debates and the "Quebec" Reform Party ad. The data indicate that both events had a substantial impact on vote intentions but that the impact was only temporary. Their final effect on the outcome of the election was negligible. The data also indicate that, irrespective of these two events, Reform made some gains during the campaign, mostly at the expense of the Liberals.