31 Jul Why not put CNS back on the straight and narrow?

In a series of pre-election posts last fall on things the Dexter government had done well, and things it had done badly, I faulted the government’s Harperesque imposition of political control over Communications Nova Scotia.

Among other things, Premier Dexter’s office imposed a ham-handed template for news releases. It replaced traditional straightforward explanations of what government was doing with treacly accounts of how Nova Scotians would benefit from some government action or policy, and exactly which subset of Nova Scotians would benefit most. I diagrammed it this way:

[Some subset of] Nova Scotians will [experience something good] because of [something the Dexter government has done].

Habits imposed from on high die hard, it seems. CNS is amply staffed with capable communicators, but nearly a year after voters turfed the NDP, the agency continues to use a political template. Here’s a news release that came out today from the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism.

Residents of Inverness and Cheticamp, and French-speaking people in the Sydney area. will benefit from two community projects that are receiving support from the provincial government.

This is as patronizing as it is awkward. The public is sick of political message-speak. Just let us know what you’re doing, and trust us to figure out whether it’s a good thing, why, and for whom.

We’ll let you know in three or four years.