Whatever you might think of the federal government’s announcement this week on income trusts, one professional communicator labels the way the announcement was made a “touchdown.” Bob Reid, a principal of the communications firm Veritas Canada, writes the following in his firm’s weekly newsletter “Touchdowns and Fumbles”:
How the heck could a hastily-made announcement which enraged many investors, sewered the stock market and broke a campaign promise possibly warrant a Touchdown? Because the communications part of it went flawlessly. Believe what you choose about the merits of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s decision to start taxing income trusts, but when it comes to the communications execution, this commentator says it was nigh on perfect. First and foremost, there was absolutely no leak. Until Flaherty gave notice of a major announcement (safely after the markets had closed), there was not a peep of advance word or speculation of any kind that the move was in the offing. Then, both in making the announcement and in the subsequent defense of the new policy, Flaherty was as clear as he was consistent in his positioning: that it was the right thing to do, for Canada’s economy, taxpayers and future competitiveness alike. And, to cap it all off, the next-day editorials and comment pages were filled with expressions of support from business columnists to political pundits to such unlikely endorsers as CUPE and the editorial writers at Toronto Star. Yes, it was a shocking change in position for the Conservatives. But the only thing that can trump a policy reversal is a communications plan that successfully makes the case that it was the right thing to do – not in terms of politics, but in terms of public policy. Only Nixon could go to China; ditto Flaherty and taxing income trusts.