Politique canadienne

A08(b) - Political Communication, Scandals, and Resignations in the Permanent Campaign

Date: May 31 | Heure: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location: Classroom - CL 232 Room ID: 15718

Chair/Président/Présidente : Edana Beauvais (McGill University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : André Turcotte (Carleton University)

Ministerial Resignations and the Permanent Campaign in Canada, 1867-2015: Cheryl Collier (University of Windsor), J.P. Lewis (University of New Brunswick)
Abstract: Advocates of the permanent campaign theory suggest that parties, including government parties, are in campaign mode at all times, not restricting campaign-like behaviour to the period between the time the election is called and the election date. Parties’ behaviour while in this campaign mode is characterized by scripted, branded governance with an emphasis on the ability to tightly manage the communications aspect of policy implementation. With the adoption of permanent campaign behaviour, government parties may be especially cautious when handling situations, self-inflicted or not, that may expose their government to questions of competence. Considering this, it might be expected that the presence of permanent campaigns extends the period when governments are averse to the political risk of accepting a minister’s resignation or to not consider resignation at all. For our paper, we ask: Does the presence of the permanent campaign lead to less government resignations? To answer this question, we track calls for federal ministerial resignation from opposition parties in Hansard and from the media in The Globe and Mail, and cases of resignation from 1867 to 2015. With this dataset, we will explore the trend in time passed between calls for resignation and actual resignation (or no resignation). We hypothesize that the conditions of the permanent campaign would lead to greater time lapses between calls for resignation and resignations themselves, and less overall resignations. As well, since the actual time period identified as the “permanent campaign” era could be contested, finding trends may help identify its introduction.

From Gomery To The Aga Khan: Comparing The Prime Minister's Office Communication Strategies During Scandals: Peter Ryan (Mount Royal University)
Abstract: This paper compares the communication strategies of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) during three separate scandals from 2004 to 2017, specifically Paul Martin's responses during the Gomery Commission, Stephen Harper's during the Senate scandals, and Justin Trudeau's during the Ethics Commissioner's review of his Aga Khan vacation. A content analysis is conducted focusing on the use of prime ministerial speeches and statements posted on the PMO official website over those periods, and compared alongside the media messages released. The research for this content analysis answers the question, “What communication differences exist in terms of the diversity of names and policies mentioned in a comparison of Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, and Justin Trudeau’s PMO speeches and statements during periods of scandal?” As a primary resource, the finalized open access database of the Canadian Prime Ministers’ public speeches project includes over 4000 entries of every person’s name mentioned in each speech from 1993 until 2017. Trudeau had only listed 16 speeches in his first 15 months in office, whereas Harper had recorded that amount in the first five months of his majority government. This analysis contrasts Trudeau's speeches with the PMO's release of statements that have increased in number as compared to Harper's, compensating for the limited speech output. Despite his media visibility, the evidence supports that Trudeau is not communicating on policy as frequently as Harper had, which aligns with Marland’s theories of political master brands. This presentation also features an undergraduate student’s account of conducting research for the project.