Elephants in the Room
With all the drama surrounding life, we are also involved in an provincial election. For Americans, this isn’t a pejorative comment, but it relates to an election of a geographical area comparable to one of your states. Elections must be called after a certain period of time, but can also be called earlier. In this case the Premier - think Governor in your case, is facing some unpleasant and possibly scandalous revelations and is trying to get ahead of it as a giant going after the USA and needing a mandate. He doesn’t. Bribing me with $200 of my own money doesn’t endear me either.
This morning I received a message from a competing poliical party called the Green Party - and you can guess that it is progressive. Here’s what its message said: Let’s take a look at his environmental record:
He tried to open the Greenbelt for development. (And is still moving ahead with his plan to build two highways through the Greenbelt – including the controversial Highway 413.)
He’s working with Enbridge to ensure that oil and gas remain a staple of the power grid.
He gutted conservation authorities to speed up development. (And isn’t consulting – or even informing! – the public about major changes to environmental policy.)
He weakened endangered species’ laws, and now Lake Superior’s woodland caribou are in danger of being wiped out.
He’s making it easier to build on wetlands. (Doesn’t he know paving wetlands will make flooding worse?)
He’s ripping up bike lanes in downtown Toronto.
He’s making it easier to build natural gas pipelines.
The Green Party message followed with one very brief paragraph stating what it valued and stood for. Then it went back to their complaints
Later this morning I started on a book called Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff. You know what you just thought of..
The above message is a good example of how not to communicate to potential voters.. It simply reinforces the views of the part it opposes. The book mentioned is written for American progressives, but it has application here as well.
As long as you talk about what you are opposed to, it makes the reader focus on that. In American media You-know-who’s image heads up most news items. I’m now starting to see whether New York Times and Globe and Mail articles start with the fact and then dispute a lie. When the opposite occurs the reader may stop before continuing, and the reinforcement works every time.
Framing of messages matters!