Bush Sr. lost his shot at a second term as President of the United States in large part because Bill Clinton’s campaign manager James Carville (the Ragin’ Cajun) uttered those immortal (in political circles) words at the right time to the right reporter. The rest was basically history. Now the line gets hauled out every time a marginal political issue somehow captures mainstream media or “inside the Beltway” types. So much so that it has essentially become a cliche. As loathe as I am to trot out tired old political cliches, lately I have been dying to climb to the highest point in the Gatineau hills overlooking the Parliament buildings and shout it until I am hoarse.

Why? The Census.

For Pete’s sake, is this what it has really come to? Optional versus mandatory long form census for a portion of the Canadian public and the reliability of results under said proposal? This is some sort of grand scheme to undermine our democracy? Will political careers, party leaders or governments, rise or fall over this issue? Are Canadians seized by the issue each night as they sit around the kitchen table? At least to the same extent so many social media commentators seem to be? Headlines shout “Conservatives face Census furor.” Really? I have been doing my damndest trying to locate that furor here in our humble little Hogtown, to no avail. Every single person I have asked about this issue (granted, these are people who don’t work in media, public affairs, communications or government) have in the following order: a) asked me what the hell I am talking about; b) asked me to explain it; and c) asked me, again, what the hell I am talking about.

The biggest issue facing Canadians is still the economy. I am sorry. General Motors is gone from Windsor after almost a century running an assembly line. Gone. Ask those auto workers and their families about the “Census furor.” Ask business leaders who are trying to plan into 2011 amid a shaky European Union economy, poor U.S. job numbers, plummeting U.S. orders for durable goods and threats of a double dip recession. Ask public sector workers being asked to take a wage freeze. Ask dozens of major hospitals facing big budget deficits.

Some folks engaged in the “Census furor” have trotted out a Canadian political catchphrase: “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” But I prefer another Pierre Trudeau saying when it comes to this whole uproar: “Fuddle duddle.”

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Through a combination of fixed wireless and satellite technologies, Canada’s largest and fastest growing wireless broadband service provider delivers high-speed internet to people in rural and remote communities across Canada.

In the past, the company had chosen to maintain a low profile across Canada as it quietly gained market share in rural areas, not wishing to attract too much attention. In February of 2006, the CRTC’s Decision 2006-9 changed the rules of the game. It was decided that some $650 million collected from telephone subscribers in deferral accounts would be offered to the major telephone companies to provide broadband in places in which commercial operators might not find it viable.

Canada’s fastest growing wireless broadband provider realized that they needed to launch a comprehensive PR/GR campaign to raise their brand recognition amongst rural Canadians and elected officials. They turned to Fleishman-Hillard to launch this campaign.

Solution

The overall goal of the campaign was to increase awareness and establish the company as Canada’s champion of rural broadband in the minds of key targets and the general population. It was decided to focus geographically on Ontario and politically on the Federal government.

FH began by raising awareness of the fact that all Canadians, regardless of where they live or work, can have access to broadband. We challenged the commonly held perception that areas outside of major urban centres in Canada do not have access to broadband. FH created awareness and demand for the company’s services through direct public relations and marketing activities to build a critical mass of consumer support that influenced local decision-makers and facilitated the company’s entry in the market.

FH built on our existing relationship with MPPs, MLAs, mayors, and government officials to educate them on the company’s business case, and to highlight the fact that it was one of the few companies that had the technology available to be successful in these “hard to reach” markets.

FH utilized several communication tactics to ensure that the company’s brand would be linked to rural broadband use, and to provide for an integrated communications campaign. FH facilitated direct mail to reach the target market in the identified communities. Town hall meetings for the communities were held to educate the people on broadband and the company itself, and to show them a “live demonstration” of the product. We advised this client on the update of their website to show their technological advantage over other providers. FH also devised contests that helped to generate excitement and ongoing media coverage.

On the federal GR side, FH worked with the Minister of Industry and key MPs to ensure that the CRTC Decision 2006-9 was modified to reduce the potential subsidies to the big telephone companies, who are competitors in some areas of the country.

Results

As a result of our partnership, the company has become the undisputed leader in rural broadband in Canada. When the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture announced its Rural Connections program in 2007, this company became the P3 Partner for more rural broadband projects than any other firm in Ontario.

This company won, through a very competitive bid, the City of Ottawa RFP for the roll out of broadband in rural areas of the city. The deployment was very successful, and the company is credited with the success of the program by Ottawa City Hall.

This company continues to work with Fleishman-Hillard, expanding its focus into Western Canada.

This company is a world leader in on-site document destruction, with more than 140 branches servicing more than 150,000 clients in five continents.

In 2008 the City of Calgary raised a number of concerns regarding the company’s operations within the city and threatened to pass bylaws that would in effect put companies like it out of business. Issues included:

• Restrictive parking regulations targeted at the industry;
• Noise bylaw;
• Curbside vending bylaw;
• Anti-idling bylaw.

The company’s management realized that they needed to launch a comprehensive government and community relations campaign in order to defend themselves and demonstrate that complaints were exaggerated. It also needed to communicate with city councillors and businesses in order to prevent regulations that would destroy their business model (making Calgary the first city in the world to make curbside shredding illegal).

Solution

In order to quickly and quietly diffuse the situation before things became public, Fleishman-Hillard engaged in a targeted outreach campaign to educate city councillors and businesses about the company’s case.

FH worked to cultivate and leverage existing relationships with city councillors and businesses to facilitate the company’s case. This involved:

• Meetings with city councillors in order to determine the cause of concern and to persuade them that the company was taking steps to reduce parking violations and noise;
• Presentations to city council committees to demonstrate all the things the company was doing to improve operations and reduce problems; and
• Developing key messages including demonstrating that banning curbside shredding unfairly targeted one business.

Results

As a result of FH’s work, the City of Calgary decided not to proceed with additional bylaws that would eliminate curbside shredding. The company has remained the leader in on-site document destruction in the City of Calgary.

In July 2008, the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) was scheduled to hold its Annual Summit in Vancouver and engaged FH Vancouver to ensure that the event generated awareness and visibility before, during and after the summit. A binational forum focused on the economic competitiveness of the Pacific Northwest, PNWER encourages dialogue and cooperation among the north western US states and Canadian provinces. Its purpose is to help legislators and business leaders to come to bether to develop regional solutions to global economic challenges.

Results

As part of its mandate with PNWER, FH Vancouver undertook sponsorship and marketing support, including identifying private sector partners; developed the communications and media relations plan in partnership with the Province of British Columbia; delivered on-site media relations; and, as PNWER’s strategic support team in Vancouver, Fleishman Hillard Vancouver made an instrumental contribution to ensuring the success of PNWER’s largest-ever gathering of senior legislators and business leaders from the Pacific Northwest region.

The Canadian Payday Loan Association (CPLA) represents Canada’s retail payday lending industry. Payday loan operators provide short term, unsecured loans averaging $280 per transaction over a ten day period. The industry, however, was the only unregulated segment in Canada’s financial services sector. To address growing criticism that the payday loan industry should be regulated, FH was retained by CPLA to mount a comprehensive nation-wide campaign to seek legislative change that would enable regulation. The cornerstone for this initiative was to convince the federal government to amend s. 347 of the Criminal Code (Criminal Rates of Interest) so that provinces could be given the authority to set rates for payday loans and, in so doing, provide real protection for consumers.

Solution

Over the course of eighteen months beginning in early 2005, FH led a strategic media relations and government relations campaign, supplemented by grass-roots and stakeholder relations, targeting key media and key political and bureaucratic decision makers at the provincial and federal levels of government. A multi-level, multi-party government relations exercise was pursued, supplemented by a focused and highly successful national and provincial media campaign.

Results

In early 2006, a number of provincial governments began signaling their support for provincial regulation of the payday loans industry and were encouraging the federal Justice Minister to introduce the required criminal code amendment. At the same time, several national, provincial and media press stories were generated which added to a growing momentum for regulatory change.

With sustained effort, in May of 2007 the federal government gave Royal Assent to legislation which gives authority to the provinces to regulate the payday loan industry through consumer protection mechanisms that set a clear maximum on the cost of borrowing. Through FH’s country-wide media and government relations efforts, eight provinces have already moved to regulate the industry, providing both consumer protection and continued access to payday loans.