Dispatch Lite: Influencer Nation
Instead of owning up to problems and demanding accountability, the government has decided to try to Influence problems out of existence.
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Please enjoy this week's Line editor video between Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney — we tried a split-screen view this week but didn't love it, to be honest. We'll probably go back to the old way unless you, the viewers, strongly prefer this.
When Justin Trudeau and his merry band of iPhone-packin’ Liberals came to power in 2015, they quickly established themselves as world leaders in the use of social media to backscratch, logroll, big-up, and otherwise tell one another, and the world, how awesome they thought they all were. We at The Line found it all pretty obnoxious out of the gate, but given Trudeau’s repeated electoral successes, it’s clear that YMMV on this sort of stuff.
But one thing that has happened over the past seven years is that social media has gone from a significant vehicle for the branding and promotion of the Liberal government, into something close to an end itself. It’s not clear when the shift happened, but at some point the Liberals went from Twitter being used as a way of selling policy, to policy being little more than a device for getting the shamrock Twitter army riled up. Similarly, where once Instagram was a way for Liberal ministers to show off while doing Liberal minister-y things, it’s pretty clear that now, the only rationale for a Liberal minister to do anything is if it serves the imperatives of the ‘gram.
To put it plainly: Under Justin Trudeau, Canada has become the world’s first Influencer Nation.
Understanding that Canada’s federal government is now little more than a social media account is the best — nay, only — way we have found of making sense of what Trudeau’s Liberals are up to. For example, earlier this week the Prime Minister’s Office sent an email around that contained a “readout” (that is, a more or less invented summary) of a conversation Trudeau allegedly had with some of his ministers and senior officials. The subject matter was “the latest developments in Ukraine,” and it is absolutely the sort of thing the prime minister of Canada ought to be discussing with his minister of defence, his minister of foreign affairs, and the clerk of the privy council.
But as the sort of thing that you would summarize as a readout and mail to members of the press gallery, it’s utterly preposterous. Paul Wells of Maclean’s, bless his heart, found the time and energy to chapter-and-verse it, and please do read the whole thing. But we would draw your attention to the second last paragraph of the readout:
Together, the Prime Minister and ministers raised the need to find a peaceful solution through dialogue. They reaffirmed Canada’s steadfast support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and considered current and future assistance to Ukraine. Prime Minister Trudeau emphasized that any further military incursion into Ukraine would have serious consequences, including coordinated sanctions.
Does this sound like any conversation you’ve ever had, or overheard? Is anyone credulous enough to think this is remotely how the discussion went? This isn’t the summary of an actual cabinet meeting; at best, it’s a placeholder bit of boilerplate for someone hell bent on trying to write an Aaron Sorkin movie about Canadian politics. But what it really is a sort of reverse New Yorker cartoon contest: It’s the caption for an Instagram post that you’re supposed to imagine in your mind’s eye.
Also this week, there was this story from Canada’s pre-eminent defence journalist, David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen. As Pugliese reported, Public Services and Procurement Canada has put out a call looking for influencers willing to help push the government’s preferred messaging on its shambolic National Shipbuilding Strategy. As the PSPC recruitment document put it: “We are asking for your help in promoting the values, benefits and impacts of the Strategy by amplifying our campaign messages on your social media channels and throughout your networks.”
We like to think of ourselves as pretty jaded and hard to phase here at The Line, but this one really threw us. When the NSS was announced by the Harper government in 2010, it was widely praised as the model for how naval procurement and shipbuilding should be done in this country. But this long-term plan to construct new vessels for the navy and the coast guard has run into the same problems that bedevil every procurement initiative in this country: political interference, extreme delays, mind-boggling cost overruns.
But instead of owning up to the problems and demanding accountability, the government has decided to try to Influence the problem out of existence. As the PSPC bumf tells prospective propagandists, “The NSS has resulted in many social and economic benefits, from creating and sustaining more than 16,000 jobs annually to showcasing the innovations applied to shipbuilding, and we know we have content that would be of interest to your followers and networks.”
In his latest column, Chris Selley opens with the rhetorical query, “Did I hear someone ask how stupid the Canadian federal government thinks we are?” and goes on to suggest that the answer can be found in Pugliese’s report.
Fun as Selley’s column is, we beg to differ. Hiring people to use their social media accounts to con Canadians over yet another defence procurement fiasco isn’t a matter of using influencer lipstick to cover up the procurement pig. No, it’s more serious than this: Under the Trudeau Liberals, the procurement pig is just a useful disaster that provides the happy occasion for the influencers to dig out their sticks of Maybelline.
Roundup:
Alright, Line readers. Don’t let Matt Gurney keep you up at night (unless it’s with his giddy tweets about the Nova-class and Steamrunner-class starships being back). Have an amazing weekend. We’ll see you next week. And please do sign up today.
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