News from our work & clients
Canada had its own SOPA moment this week
Wikipedia didn’t go black, but the government did learn a lesson about the new age of political activism.
On Tuesday, Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, introduced Bill C-30, positioned by Toews and the Government as a Bill to stop child pornography. The public saw it differently.
Within hours the backlash started. But unlike, say, five years ago, the backlash wasn’t limited to political insiders, journalists and irate opposition leaders, the public took to Twitter, Facebook and social media in droves. But it wasn’t until Robert Jensen, an ordinary citizen, created the hashtag #tellviceverything that the firestorm began.
Jensen took to Twitter (@RobertJensen2) and urged his 939 followers to literally, tell Vic Toews everything. From the banal, to the racy, tweets poured in from across Canada all tagged with the hashtag #tellviceverything.
Read the tweets HERE
The effect was immediate. By Thursday the hashtag had gone viral, Toews and the Government were powerless to stop the TMI (too much information) flooding in from around the country.
It was a rare and sincere moment for Canadian activism – not motivated by a powerful public interest group or strategically crafted public relation campaign.
And for those of us in the business of creating these campaigns it was a learning moment with valuable takeaways.
Drummond report offers a smorgasbord of options, some more politically palatable than others
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the comedic science fiction series penned by late author Douglas Adams, the guidebook referenced in the title has on its cover, in big letters, the words “DON’T PANIC.”
Perhaps similar advice should adorn the report released today by former senior bank economist Don Drummond.
For all the hand-wringing sure to follow — and there will be plenty of angst, given that virtually every one of the 362 recommendations in the report could be perceived as negatively impacting someone’s job — at this point the efficiencies are all purely conceptual. It’s up to Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals to decide which will be implemented, and right now they’re not committing to anything. Read More
I am a third year student from Brock University studying Political Science/Public Administration. I am completing an internship with Enterprise Canada in their Government Relations department. I will be regularly writing blog posts on my experiences dealing with Ontario politics. This is my first post and deals with Premier McGuinty’s speech to the Canadian Club which I attended on January 24th.
Health care and public service salaries were major topics in Dalton McGuinty’s much anticipated speech. After detailing a lengthy list of Liberal Party accomplishments, a somber looking McGuinty explained Ontario is facing many challenges. A primary goal is slashing a massive $16 billion deficit. Read More
Read Jason Lietaer’s take on What CEOs can Learn from Left-Wing Think-Tanks in the Huffington Post.
On Tuesday, as many of us awoke from our calorie-induced slumber and wobbled into work at — let’s be honest, half-speed — there was one group that was working overtime. Corporate CEOs, you ask? Nope. But they were the targets.
Read Jason Lietaer’s take on the Ontario Speaker’s Race in the Huffington Post.
I’m not here to pretend that Klees’ decision was good news for the Ontario PC party. It caused some anger, some frustration and genuine bewilderment. There are those who are calling for his head. But let’s keep it into perspective: an MPP is running for Speaker, with what looks like a difficult road ahead of him to win.
Peter Downs, an award-winning reporter at the St. Catharines Standard, has joined public affairs firm Enterprise Canada’s growing Niagara office.
Peter brings 20 years of journalism experience to Enterprise Canada, including the last 12 years in Niagara.
Read More
We asked. They answered. Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi, NDP MPP Gilles Bisson and PC strategist and Enterprise Canada’s own Jason Lietaer tell us what’s ahead for the next four (or less) years in Ontario politics. Watch a selected clips from the event below.
As they begin sifting through the entrails of Election ‘11, each party will do so with mixed emotions; it was a bittersweet outcome all around. For the Liberals, Dalton McGuinty is still Premier — a major accomplishment considering how most polls had written him off just months ago, and the first time in more than a century the Libs have won three elections in a row. But they lost 19 seats, leaving them with 53, one agonizingly short of a third straight majority. (And that is where the number will stay. Although Liberals lost a handful of close races, none were by less than several hundred votes, making recounts pointless.) For the PCs, Leader Tim Hudak can boast of winning a dozen more seats, up to 37, and earning almost the same percentage of the popular vote as McGuinty — 38% for the Liberals, 36% for the Tories — but the disappointment of losing an election that was clearly his for the taking surely stings. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was triumphant in adding seven new MPPs to her caucus, bringing the total to 17, and boosting party support to 23%. Technically, Horwath also holds the balance of power in a minority government. But there’s the rub: With the margin so razor thin, the NDP and Tories would have to be unanimous in order to block any Liberal initiatives or topple the government. Such a scenario seems unlikely, but McGuinty will have to wheel-and-deal —with his own caucus and his rivals’ — in order to prevent another election before the next scheduled vote in 2015.
Read our entire analysis in this weeks Ontario Legislative Highlights.
Lindsay Finneran-Gingras, Digital Communications Consultant at Enterprise Canada, provides her analysis on the popularity of Facebook birthday in the latest issue of MacLean’s.
Read the analysis here.
Peter Landry, Vice President of Government Relations & Research at Enterprise Canada, provides insight on the Ontario provincial election in the latest issue of MacLean’s.
Read the analysis here.
