NASCAR and Canadian Voters

American politicians routinely try and persuade the NASCAR demographic to vote for them; it appears that the federal Tories are trying to do the same.

To this end, they've recently sponsored a car in the Canadian NASCAR circuit with a big blue 'C' on the hood.

“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.

The NDP, who has opposed the car sponsorship, has come under attack from the Tories. Their opposition comes, in part, due to the fact that these cars use up 125 gallons of leaded fuel during a single race. The Tories argue that by not supporting auto-racing, a genuinely working-class activity, the NDP are alienating their own constituents, especially automotive workers.

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.

By the way, the car is driven by Pierre Bourque, whose popular Internet news aggregator sells torqued headlines to political operatives.