When making a government decision that could potentially be unpopular with voters, there’s one of two approaches a governing leader can take-1) sweep the issue under the carpet and hope for the best, or 2) go on the offense with a strong communications strategy. The latter is exactly the approach that the McGuinty Liberals are taking with the implementation of the unpopular HST.
Over the past few months, the McGuinty government has targeted Ontarians with subway blitzes on the way to work, to delivering speeches outlining the government’s direction, to messaging about the benefits of the HST in a local Liberal MPPs householder.
Although these are all good traditional ways of communicating the message, I have to commend McGuinty and political strategists in the Premier’s office for -a) recognizing that it’s important to get out with messaging before the July 1st HST drop date, and b) understanding that in order to properly reach out to Ontarians you need to have a strong grassroots campaign.
Fostering this grassroots campaign is an aggressive social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Let’s face it, voters tend to cringe when they hear the word “tax”. That said, by going out with solid messaging and clearly defining the story helps to avoid major criticism as we have seen in other jurisdictions like British Columbia
McGuinty’s test on whether this communications strategy will actually work is July 1st when the HST comes into effect. Will Ontarians be banging on the doors of Queen’s Park? Or, will they be busy barbequing at the cottage? Ten bucks says McGuinty is hoping for a sunny Canada Day.
