An Examination of Class and Left-Right Party Images in Canadian Voting

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Abstract
The systematic investigation of party-projected images is a relatively recent development in political science. Past studies into this subject have largely dealt with the perceptions of political parties held by various groups, and the perceived mobility of the parties over time with regard to selected dimensions. For the determination of party images held by individuals, most previous works in the field have made use of the semantic differential technique pioneered by Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum. This approach consists of respondents being asked to rank political parties along a number of seven-point scales, each demarcated by a pair of antonyms such as “good-bad” or “slow-fast.” Tests confirming the reliability, validity and comparability of the measure have also been conducted by Osgood et al., as found in The Measurement of Meaning.

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