The Conservative Party War Room had a clear objective - make Trudeau look bad. They had, and still have, a belief that people either don't care about context or aren't clever enough to know they're being duped.
We are smart, they are dumb; we are providers, they are consumers. Hitting hard was all that matters - a victory in 2015 will absolve all sins.
The Tories have either not learned from robocalls, vikileaks and Project FruitBasket or simply don't think the lessons matter, because they're an empire now. If that's the case they're deluding themselves.
Especially now, every single comment they make is going to be scrutinized by someone; every single detail will be laid bare. All of these gaffes will be strung together to form a narrative and if that big picture looks sketchy to Canadians, they'll respond in kind.
If any Party misrepresents the truth, if they lie or if they break the rules, it'll be magnified to starkly transparent proportions via social media and they'll be held to account - just like everyone else.
The field of engagement has changed; you can't repurpose your intent or get bureaucrats to speak in "political truths" any more without getting caught. The Internet sees into every dark corner - and it remembers.
There's only one way to succeed in this world of forced political transparency - be engaging, be creative and plan ahead.
To not end up with egg on their face in an embarrassing way, Team Harper has to stop trying to take down others and instead start challenging themselves to be more than the sum of their aggressive, competitive parts. To succeed at that, they're going to have to seek ideas from beyond their own sphere, but not in a crib-the-speech kind of way.
Nope - they're going to have to be pro-social to maintain the brand. But Trudeau already owns that brand.
Interesting times, indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment