“Strong, Proud, Free”

The above is apparently the 'branding' that the Conservatives are now going to be inundating us with for the foreseeable future, it remains to be seen if we finally see the end of the “Economic Action Plan” Ads that have plagued us for years in attempting to persuade us that they actually had one. We know that these Ads are designed to promote the Conservative Regime and actually provide very minimal real information about government services but now with an election in the offing and Harper being spun as the great protector of Canadians and with our getting increasingly involved in various wars abroad this slogan is being pimped.
Its the same as with most things from this regime, if you say it enough times it must be true despite the reality being nothing of the kind..

Strong? We had all better remain strong if we are to survive the levels of BS that is about to bombard us from not only the Cons (much of it on our dime) but from the other parties (on their own dime) and if we are to protect our parliamentary democracy from further erosion. .
Proud? I am certainly not proud of my Federal Governments lack of action on the environmental file and their obstructionist attitude in global climate talks. I am not proud of the hoops the Feds are making our Vets jump through to receive compensation for injuries received. I am not proud of the PM lecturing various other countries on woman’s rights, democracy, economics etc etc whist doing little about such things at home.
Free? Next thing you know they will be telling us that scientists, department spokespersons, Con MPs etc........ are free to speak to the public without having an 'approved' script. They will also tell us that their new Secret Police Bill that enables detention for having an 'unapproved' opinion is to protect our freedom and that charities are free to express such opinions without being targeted by auditors.

It seems that you are not free to see the rationale behind this latest branding as “A request under the Access to Information Act seeking any background rationale for the tagline, which is being used to punctuate all the latest taxpayer-funded advertising, has come up empty. That’s because a 149-page Treasury Board submission on advertising has been deemed advice to cabinet, placing it behind a lead sheet of secrecy that even the federal information commissioner can’t penetrate.”
They are so proud of their efforts to spend our tax money on this branding that “No minister or department will claim responsibility for the whole-of-government marketing campaign, and requests for comment from the Prime Minister’s Office were returned by the Privy Council, which co-ordinates the development of government advertising.”


You are free to decide for yourself if in fact the Conservative Regime is in fact in compliance with the rules as they say.
“Section 23 of the communications policy of the government of Canada states that institutions must not use public funds to purchase advertising in support of a political party,” Privy Council Office spokesman Raymond Rivet said in an e-mail.
“All government of Canada advertising is designed to comply with the guidance set out in the policy.”

But as with most things in Ottawa nowadays the rules are not clear and there is no oversight and no penalties for bending the few rules that do exist.
“The Conservatives have come under repeated criticism for spending tens of millions of dollars annually on government advertising that is often indistinguishable from the partisan branding of the party. The marketing exercise extends to departmental Web design (now a uniform Tory blue, with cross-pollinating links to popular Conservative initiatives such as family tax cuts) and even departmental press releases, often heralding local “Harper government” expenditures.”

I suppose we should be grateful that they did not decide upon Open, Honest, Principled!



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