“Ethical Oil” didn’t just spring from nowhere - it was carefully conceived in the manner of major advertising campaigns and the work of Republican strategist Frank Luntz (who coined “the death tax” in order to push lower estate taxes, and encouraged the Bush Administration to re-frame global warming as “climate change”, for instance). In fact, what we are presently witnessing around the Enbridge debate is the full-force implementation of American-style political campaign tactics - where everything is built around a single, simple concept - like “socialist” Obama-care (right!), “tough on terror”, or Orwellian distortions like the “Patriot “Act - which, no matter how illogical, gain traction through relentless, monosyllabic repetition, delivered via the triple threat of corporate media, government and corporate-backed lobbies, “think tanks” and pr firms.
It remains to be seen how effective these tactics will be with Canadians. Already there has been some surprising push-back in the mainstream media - from Stephen Hume’s shrewd analysis in the Vancouver Sun this week, to tough questions from CTV News and the CBC’s Evan Solomon (a must-watch) and Anna-Maria Tremonti (a must-listen) in recent weeks. At least some of the nation and province’s top political commentators aren’t falling for the Ethical Oil routine. (click to read article in full)
Also, if you know nothing about this temperate rainforest they’ll be destroying, watch this brief documentary “Tipping Barrels: Journey Into the Great Bear” on Vimeo.
