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If the Raptors won, there was going to be a parade. If the Raptors lost, there was going to be a Game 7 on Sunday — the same day the NDP planned to launch its platform.

Either way, no one is going to pay attention to a policy launch when the entire country is watching a basketball championship. It should have punted the launch to September.

Second, Doug Ford. The Ontario premier is a gift that keeps on giving to both the provincial and federal NDP. The entire focus of the Ontario NDP convention should have been on Ford and nothing else.

Voters are steering away from Andrew Scheer in Ontario because of Ford. Singh should be fanning the flames and let the focus be on Ford this summer instead of what he might plan to do.

Third, roll out. The NDP launched a platform and had no roll out. Any political platform launch needs to be supported by a massive media presence and many roll-out events across the country. Another fail by Singh’s team.

Finally, tradition. It’s common practice that you launch a campaign platform at the beginning of the campaign in September. Think the Liberal Red Book of Jean Chretien. If you want to break with tradition, you could look at the success of Ford, who won a campaign with basically no platform at all.

Team Singh, already languishing in the polls, decided to do what no one has successfully done before — launch a campaign platform at the end of June hoping it dominates the picnic circuit and thrusts them to victory. Good luck with that.

All of this must frustrate Scheer and the Conservatives the most. They can’t control Ford, and they can’t help the NDP — both of whom right now are causing vote splits in favour of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals.

Campaigns and election platforms matter. They win and lose elections.

The NDP launched its platform at the worst possible time, and hardly anyone knows it even has one.

Jim Warren is a Liberal strategist who has worked for Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto mayor Mel Lastman.