The paper uses the 1997 Canadian Election Study (CES) to determine whether
there were significant dynamics in the 1997 Canadian election and to provid
e 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 even
ts had a substantial impact on vote intentions but that the impact was only
temporary. Their final effect on the outcome of the election was negligibl
e. The data also indicate that, irrespective of these two events, Reform ma
de some gains during the campaign, mostly at the expense of the Liberals.