December 11, 2008
Michael Ignatieff held the most important news conference of his life so far yesterday, an hour after he was acclaimed as the new leader of the Liberal party. One would think that he would learn his lines properly for this solemn occasion.
Threatening to pull the plug on the minority Harper government, the newly minted leader says “he must not doubt my calm, quiet, determined determination that he has to walk back down the hill.” His expression made it clear that he knew he had just screwed up his big line.
Mr. Ignatieff was trying to use the Rule of three, a favourite gimmick of speechwriters and academics. “Calm, quiet and resolute determination” perhaps? Unflinching? Righteous? Churchillian? Napoleonic?
I hate to throw stones at a public figure flubbing a line. Hey, most of us arrogant flacks would get slaughtered if put in similar circumstances, like the Toby Ziegler character in The West Wing. But it’s more than the screwed-up line. Ignatieff is okay behind a podium, but in interviews his non-verbal sucks. We barely see his eyes because he looks down a lot, he seems to be hunched over (a common trait in tall people in a sit-down interview). I’m not a make-up guy, but it seems to me something could be done on that front too. The whole thing leaves a bad impression.
The man needs a two-day media training session with some heartless flack who will break his bad habits. Judging by the performance of the previous leader, that person is not available within the Liberal brain pool. They need to bring in somebody from outside.
Speaking of The West Wing, is anybody in PR using this book? I’m curious about it.
2 Comments | 
2008 election, liberal ndp agreement, Media relations, Oops!, Politics, PR & Marketing | Tagged: Determined determination, Flubbed lines, Foot-in-mouth disease, Media training, Michael Ignatieff, Talking tough, The aftermath of the 2008 election, Toby Ziegler | 
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Posted by finalspin
December 5, 2008
Well, the idea of a coalition government seems to be all but over. It’s been killed by incompetence within the Liberal PR team, a leader trying to improvise his way out of a crisis and an absolutely ruthless Conservative flack team.
I like ruthlessness. It’s when your opponent is flinching that you need to hit him the hardest. But we’re not talking about boxing on the Wii here. This is the national political scene and Canadian citizens are taking the hits.
The Prime Minister lies in a national address to the Canadian people. Some of our MPs are calling others ‘traitors’. The ruling party attempts to bludgeon the people into compliance with ads designed to propagate fear among a population already worried about the economic situation.
Ugly PR. Bad politics.
Further reading: Conservative propaganda won, I lost: Dion
Leave a Comment » | 2008 election, liberal ndp agreement, Media relations, Politics, PR & Marketing | Tagged: Advertizing fear, Conservative ads, Ruthless PR, Stéphane Dion, Stephen Harper, The aftermath of the 2008 election, Traitors | Permalink
Posted by finalspin
December 3, 2008
I just watched Prime minister Stephen Harper make his “address to the Nation(s)”. Actually, I just watched the Prime minister get a free TV commercial.
In a poised manner, M. Harper simply mouthed the spin he and his people have been using for the last 36 hours. He had no new information to communicate, nothing about what he intends to do to resolve the current political crisis and certainly presented no extended hand to the opposition parties.
So why use his prerogative to send a message on the country’s broadcasting system in times of crisis? Heck, it’s free TV, why not? By the time the opposition gets their message ready for broadcasting, people will have switched to something else.
It’s pretty good PR. It’s terribly bad politics. It has nothing to do with democracy.
Elsewhere-on-the-blogosphere update: Follow the conversation on these blogs-
Bastard.logic: http://bastardlogic.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/shorter-stephen-harper/#comment-15994
Mirabile dictu: http://alterwords.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/harper-lies-to-canadians/#comment-1225
DECAPITATION UPDATE: I just saw the French version of Dion’s video reply. The frame is completely off, he looks like he’s been decapitated. Geez, can’t these guys do anything right?
1 Comment | 2008 election, Media, Media relations, Politics, PR & Marketing | Tagged: Abuse the broadcasting system, Coalition, Free advertizing, Good PR - bad politics, Spin, Stephen Harper, The aftermath of the 2008 election | Permalink
Posted by finalspin
December 1, 2008
I admit I’m impressed. Dion, Layton and Duceppe had a very good news conference. Dion got the reporters to laugh (with him, not at him this time) and Layton was inspiring when he talked about how this is how politicians should work together.
The ‘coalition’ (of the willing?) is going to have good TV for a few hours. The pundits and minor MPs (hello Scott Reid) the Conservatives have sent on the political shows can’t compete with images of the three opposition leaders making common cause. They need to get out with their big guns, but do it intelligently. Stephen Harper wasn’t too good in Question Period (he can’t get rid of that damned sneer apparently), they need to provide better clips of him than the one when he addresses the Speaker as “Mr. Prime Minister”.
Dec 2 UPDATE: The letters from the opposition leaders and agreement are available here on the Liberal website and here on the NDP’s.
See also: Liberal-NDP coalition agreement signed
4 Comments | 2008 election, Politics, PR & Marketing | Tagged: Coalition government, Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton, Stéphane Dion, Stephen Harper, Text of the coalition agreement, The aftermath of the 2008 election | Permalink
Posted by finalspin
December 1, 2008
I’ve been spending as much time watching CBC Newsworld as I could this afternoon, with the indulgence of my boss and colleagues. Whatever will happen in the next week, the day’s events will make history.
An agreement has just been signed between the Liberal, New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois allowing a Liberal-NDP Cabinet with the support of the Bloc. Contingent upon the Conservatives losing power, of course… The agreement would guarantee a stable government until at least June, 2010.
Kudos to CBC reporter Rosemary Barton, who was able to translate as she read from the French copy coalition agreement she was given by the liberal flacks, before the English version reached her.
To spice it up further, the Conservatives have released the transcript of a telephone conversation involving NDP leader Jack Layton, prompting accusations of Watergate-like phone tapping.
Whatever the Conservatives had in mind with last week’s stange economic statement, it failed miserably. I’m the first one to be surprised at seeing their strategy fall apart. The PR moves of the next few days will need to be consistent with clear communication objectives if they are to regain the initiative. Their first reflex – “it’s a coup!” – does seems to be somewhat of a gaffe. The Conservative pundits I’ve seen so far look somewhat befuddled and don’t seem to have clear speaking points. Is there a problem with the Conservative spin machine?
See also: Liberal-NDP coalition agreement signed, post 2
Leave a Comment » | 2008 election, Media relations, Oops!, Politics, PR & Marketing | Tagged: Coalition agreement, Coalition government, Coup, Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton, Liberals, NDP, Stéphane Dion, Stephen Harper | Permalink
Posted by finalspin
October 20, 2008
Liberal leader Stéphane Dion just announced he will step down as soon as another leader is selected.
Interesting tidbit: he says Canadians bought into the image Conservative advertising has been trying to impose. “Trying to change this image would be an enormous effort and risk for my party.”
True enough. The Dion brand has huge negative perceptions attached to it. Time for the Liberals to put somebody else on the market.
Leave a Comment » | 2008 election, Branding, Politics, PR & Marketing | Tagged: Liberals, Negative advertizing, Resignation, Stéphane Dion | Permalink
Posted by finalspin
October 15, 2008
It’s harder to be gracious in defeat than in victory, but just as important. Defeated Bloc MP Vivian Barbot lost her cool yesterday night when it because obvious that Justin Trudeau got the better of her.
Le résultat n’est pas surprenant car nous sommes dans un fief libéral, dit Vivian Barbot. Nous savions que le résultat serait serré. Je ne peux pas commenter la campagne de M. Trudeau car il a été absent du comté. Moi, je ne l’ai pas vu en tout cas…
Basically, she can’t comment on the winner’s campaign because Mr. Trudeau was absent from the riding. Strange thing to say after you’ve been defeated… against a candidate who didn’t even need to campaign to beat you?
1 Comment | 2008 election, Politics | Tagged: "I was so bad he didn't need to be in the riding", 2008 election, Justin trudeau, Sore loser, Vivian Barbot | Permalink
Posted by finalspin
October 15, 2008
I’m all for being gracious after winning an election and newly re-elected prime Minister Stephen Harper did the right thing yesterday by calling for cooperation between all parties.
However, saying that “we have shown that minority government can work, and at this time of global economic instability we owe it to Canadians to demonstrate this once again” was a bit rich, when this election was supposed to have been called because Parliament was allegedly dysfunctional.
So, why did we line up at the poll yesterday again?
Leave a Comment » | 2008 election, Politics | Tagged: 2008 election, Harper wins, Message Dysfunction, Minority government | Permalink
Posted by finalspin
October 14, 2008
Most Canadians go to the polls today to elect their 40th Parliament, after what is probably the country’s nastiest election campaign since the early 20th Century. What is most remarquable about it is the discovery by political parties that you can be much nastier on the Internet than on TV.
As usual, about 4 Canadians in 10 won’t vote, despite the incredible sums of money spent by the parties and Elections Canada to get them interested. Along with the word ‘democracy’, the 5th Century B.C. Athenians invented a word for citizens who did not get involved in the city’s political life: Idiotes.
The word survived in many languages, but somehow we lost the meaning. A shame.
3 Comments | 2008 election, Politics | Tagged: 2008 election, Greek democracy, Idiotes, Netroops | Permalink
Posted by finalspin
Final Spin 