The Conservative government has been "too American" in its attempts to justify the Afghan war to a skeptical Canadian public, according to an internal report commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The extensive critique of the Tory communications strategy on the war comes from a series of cross-country focus groups conducted in November 2006 at a cost of almost $76,000.
The study, obtained by the Toronto Star, found that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was "echoing" U.S. President George W. Bush in his attempt to explain why Canadian soldiers are fighting and dying in the country's southern province.[...]
"Participants associated this message with public relations positioning – it was seen as echoing the kind of messaging American officials have made regarding Iraq," wrote the report's authors, the Strategic Counsel public opinion firm.
The report lists "vocabulary/terms/phrases/concepts to reinforce" the message that the government is right about its commitment to the war in Afghanistan. They include "rebuilding," "restoring," "reconstruction," "hope," "opportunity" and "enhancing the lives of women and children."
Words and phrases to avoid include: "freedom, democracy, liberty – in combination this phrase comes across as sounding too American."
Strategic Counsel also advised that the government "avoid developing a line of argumentation too strongly based on values. While the value of human rights is strongly supported, there is a risk of appearing to be imposing Canadian values. Again, this is not seen to be the `Canadian way.'"
Being firmly in support of the war, we’d like to help the government out here, so we suggest: “Canada’s hope is to be given the opportunity to obliterate the thugs trying to rebuild their reign of terror, restore the enslavement of the Afghan people and reconstruct their jihad against the West in order to enhance the lives of Canadian women, children and anything else that walks. But we have no intention of forcing hockey on them.”
2 comments:
... a skeptical Canadian public ... and yet Canadians have naively bought socialism for fifty or more years no matter the evidence that doesn't work.
While the value of human rights is strongly supported, there is a risk of appearing to be imposing Canadian values.
Does the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs not understand that since the Afghani culture doesn't value human rights, "strongly supporting" human rights is "imposing Canadian values" ?
Or is it that they just can't say so for public consumption ?
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