Bernard Gauthier

Back from summer holidays, I now have the energy to delve into political communications for a few weeks. Starting with the Liberal Party of Canada, I am setting out to spend far too much time surfing the sites of the major political parties of the nation and sharing my thoughts on these online efforts to enhance the image of the party leaders. I’ll begin by admitting that, though I follow federal politics closely, I have never felt a particular kinship for any of the major parties. If memory serves me right, I’ve voted for at least three of them in the past. My project here is merely to comment on what works and what doesn’t work in these online image-making endeavours.

At first glance, I have to say I like the Liberal site’s main page. It’s clean, loaded with useful links, nicely branded (leaving no doubt as to whose site you are on) and not visually obsessed with the party leader. Heck, the photo of Prime Minister Harper that cycles in and out of the page is larger than any photo of Stéphane Dion and, refreshingly, it isn’t one of those scary photos that all parties love using in their attack ads. So far so good.

 I start my journey with a look at the “Leader” section, clicking on the “At a glance” link first. Two things get my attention here: 1) a somewhat creepy pair of eyes staring out at me and 2) an awkward photo of Dion with sleeves rolled up and a sad little stack of papers to perhaps make us think that this is a candid snapshot of the leader of the opposition at work. Completely unconvincing and, it seems to me, incongruous. The setting and pose say “formal” and the props and sleeves say “informal.” Pick one and do it well.

I also notice the link to add Stéphane to my list of Facebook friends. It’s an interesting notion and I’ll comment more on Facebook and politics in a future posting. At the very least, the use of Facebook seems fresh and interesting.

I can’t leave this page without reading the text and find nothing particularly noteworthy expect for a gem of a sentence that reads: “Like you, he understands that Canada is most successful when we all work together on our common project of Canada.” I like the idea (who wouldn’t) but have a hard time thinking of a more awkward and uninspired way to say it.

Next, I venture into the “In depth” description of the Leader of the Opposition. The same giant eyes are still staring at me but, fortunately, I can scroll, lose the stare and find two quite nice photos of Dion (winning the leadership convention and speaking to the UN Climate Change Conference). These are real action photos (no props needed) and he looks the part of a statesman. The text is short enough and describes a busy political and academic career. I’m liking this section a lot. Then, horror, I come across a photo of Dion at an undetermined age wearing a suit and tie. The trouble is, he’s clearly a kid in this photo — or is he? Here’s the thing — he’s hardly changed at all since the photo was taken some 30 or 40 years ago. The hair and clothing are almost identical. I’m all for showing photos of political leaders when they were young; it humanizes them and gives them a story to tell. Humanizing someone, however, usually means showing different dimensions of them (like Harper liking cats or writing a book on the history of hockey). Wouldn’t it have been more refreshing to see a photo of Dion riding his bike, wearing Toughskin jeans, Keds sneaker and a Band-Aid on his elbow from a recent tree climbing mishap?

A bit dismayed, I head for the “In Conversation” section to see how Stéphane Dion answers questions from Canadians. These are his responses to queries from his Facebook friends so I expect a somewhat more relaxed Dion, informal and approachable. I click on the most recent entry (June 26 but who am I to criticize given how often I post to this blog) and find just about the opposite of what I expected. There’s Mr. Dion in a dark suit and tie, wood paneling and stacked books behind him (rather like a law office library). And how does the informal and approachable video clip begin? “Hello my spacebook friends. So, what do we have… (uncomfortable pause) today?” Two things spring to mind here: (1) Why oh why did the director not shout “Cut! Mr. Dion, it’s Facebook, not spacebook.” (2) Why open the informal and approachable clip sounding the like Mr. Dress Up? The question that follows is a bit of a lob ball but I have to admit I wasn’t really expecting any hard hitting interviews here. This is clearly not a CNN/You Tube debate. I watch on and find answers that are long and complex (probably not a good fit for the Facebook crowd) and some curious pronunciations of words like Flaherty (Finance Minister) and Boy Scout. The cool thing about video cameras is how easy it is to stop recording, press rewind and start over. Sadly, it appears the Liberal Party Facebook Cam lacks this feature.

I give up on the Facebook stuff and scroll down to the “Up Close and Personal” section. There’s a section here on “dogs” that I just have to see. This might finally be the other dimension of Dion I’ve been looking for. When the video starts, I am face to face with a very pale and blue (hardly the right colour for a Liberal) Mr. Dion speaking from a camera perched somewhere below him (maybe he’s holding it in his lap?). In spite of the terrible quality of the picture and sound, the video works much better than the Facebook stuff. It’s much more conversational, the outdoor apparel Dion wears suits him well and he does manage to reveal a bit of his personality. The clip is also much shorter and features fewer mispronunciations (though pronouncing “poodle” as “puddle” is a nice pun in a way).

My last stop is on the “Liberal TV” section of the page and, in particular, a video clip in which Mr. Dion addresses a group of farmers. Visually, the backdrop could not be worse — a large corporate logo for Pioneer Seed Corn with some of the letters covered up by the speaker. The game becomes trying to guess what the logo text actually reads. Very distracting.  I also notice the outfit Mr. Dion is wearing — navy blazer with a shirt but no tie. It’s a good choice for the occasion and he wears it well. I also like that we see the speaking notes in his hand. I get the impression he’s been busy and, like most of us, he uses notes to make sure he gets all his key points across. Good stuff.

To my great dismay, the video then gets nothing short of weird. Suddenly, as Mr. Dion’s voice continues, we see a series of disorienting shots of people in a room, people talking (not Dion) and others listening. The footage is shakey, sometimes out of focus, and often looking at the wrong things. Only when we finally see a shot of Dion listening attentively to the people around the table is it clear that this is footage of the round table to which he refers at the start of his comments. It’s distracting and frankly adds very little to the video clip.

So how does Mr. Dion fare in his online efforts to establish an image as an effective leader? Not very well, though I don’t think the fault lies with him. We see glimpses on the site of a statesman and a comfortable speaker. We see too few of these glimpses and spend too much time looking at photos, video clips and text that should have been chosen more carefully so as to communicate more clearly with visitors. Awkward text, badly chosen photos and video in desperate need of proper editing do little to connect Mr. Dion to voters. Both he and the voters he courts deserve better.