Personalization of campaigns in an SMP system: The Canadian case

This article considers the factors influencing the degree of personalization in constituency campaigning in the 2008 Canadian general election. Examining local candidates' campaign means, agenda and organization, we find a relatively high level of campaign personalization in this system. We argue that this results from systemic factors such as the single member plurality electoral system, the stratarchical nature of party organization, the campaign finance regime, and a largely decentralized method of candidate selection. Beyond these, we identify candidate, party and constituency specific variables that assist in explaining significant variance among candidates, and between parties, in the three dimensions of campaign personalization.