Brand New Party: Political Branding and the Conservative Party of Canada

Little has been written about the use of branding by Canadian political parties. We draw on interviews with 30 party elites to document the branding of the Conservative party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. We disclose that preparations to re-brand the Canadian Alliance party were subsumed into the new party and that the colour of the maple leaf in the Conservative logo was a contentious topic because of its political symbolism. We conclude that partisans' attachment to colours and the use of negative advertising constitute important differences between the practice of branding in the political and business spheres. © 2013 Canadian Political Science Association.