Va
The environment and the economy have to go...
[together] ..hand in hand.
People are barely getting by,
and they're definitely not getting ahead.
I believe that better way is possible.
Vassy:
and as you can see, a lot of politicians use them.
Some are easier to spot than others, but experts will
tell you that leaning on them too much
can risk sounding like a broken record.
As I've always said--said--said.
If that's the case, why do politicians use them so much?
♪ [theme]
A talking point is to try to keep the politician on message.
It's to make sure that the message that was identified
as a potential winner for the party is brought forward by
the candidate, by the politician,
when he or she answers a question.
Vassy:
He's a political strategist and former national director
of the NDP.
When politicians decide to freelance and say whatever,
that's when you can create problems for your campaign.
That's why parties create a message guide.
They'll identify key positions on any given topic,
then they'll script short digestible lines- talking points
- to reinforce that message.
And then politicians repeat those lines a lot.
And keep in mind, they spend money
on carefully researching those messages.
Think focus groups, dial groups, online polls.
Political parties want to be able to control the message.
they want to make sure there's consistency.
They're concerned about their brand.
Vassy:
He's writing a book on message discipline.
He says the 24 hour news cycle has made
talking points essential.
There's no question that politicians are using
talking points more than they did,
but that's partly because they're being required
to speak more often than they did.
Vassy:
to a range of questions,
and no one wants to be caught off guard.
For example...
We have recently switched to drinking water bottles out of--
water out of--
When we have water bottles out of a plastic-- Sorry.
Away from plastic, towards paper, uh, like drink box,
water bottles sort of things.
Vassy:
single use plastics across the country.
He didn't seem to expect a question about how
his own family cuts down on plastic waste.
One of the earliest examples of message control in Canada
is in this article from 1911.
It describes something called the Speaker's Handbook.
It was basically an encyclopaedia of party speeches
and answers to questions raised in Parliament over the years.
During a campaign year,
parties would send out their handbook to candidates
across the country to use in their own speeches.
Strategists call this imposing message discipline.
Today it's maybe even more important and that Speaker's
Handbook has evolved into daily emails with talking points
on any given issue during the campaign.
Talking points help them understand fairly quickly
what their party's position is
and allows them to be consistent
with other members of their party.
It's why you sometimes see party politicians
and cabinet ministers repeating exactly the same lines
as the party's leader.
The clean environment and a strong economy go hand-in-hand.
People are barely getting by, they're not getting ahead.
And in the case of local candidates,
parties really don't want anyone saying something
that's radically different from the party line.
You cause problems, but-- and you might be ostracized
within your party-- certainly by the leadership.
On the flip side, Marland says that raises questions
though about the health of our democracy.
What we don't know as citizens is if a politician is indeed
really forcefully advocating
for our behalf on our behalf
and constituent interests behind the scenes.
Or if they are just
simply being-- the expression is often trained seals.
Politicians also deliver lines because they want the public
to actually absorb the message.
From the first rule of political
communication is to repeat repeat and repeat.
When you start to get bored with your answer,
that's when you know that your message
is finally punching through.
No one really agrees on a magic number.
Some say you need to repeat a line seven times,
or twelve, or 20 times.
It might be why you remember this from the 2015 campaign.
The only choice to keep us moving forward is a
strong stable national majority Conservative government.
So let's make sure on October 19th
we get a strong stable national majority
Conservative government.
Vassy:
This is a tougher economy than it needs to be
for the middle class
than the middle class and those working hard to join it.
Strategists argue the problem is really when politicians stick
too closely to the script.
You don't want a politician to repeat word for word
the same line over and over again because then the risk
of running is that you're not authentic.
Vassy:
to a script it can almost sound like they're deflecting.
Today on power and politics...
Earlier this year I asked Jagmeet Singh if he supports
the development of the LNG project in B.C..
Instead he talked about climate change
in a totally different pipeline.
British Columbia's got one of the most ambitious climate
change plans in North America.
They've got an aggressive plan.
My concern is that what we need to do is-- we all know
this-- future of energy in, not just Canada,
but in the world has to be a future where we're not burning,
we're not fracking, and we're not using fossil fuels.
The energy has to be renewable.
That's the future of Canada.
And my focus is on right now we've got a project
in front of us at the federal level which
is Trans Mountain pipeline.
That project cannot go ahead.
Vassy: That's a great answer for Trans Mountain,
but I asked you about B.C. and LNG.
Do you support the project?
B.C.'s got a great plan.
Communications trainers will teach politicians
to try and circle back to their talking points.
They call it pivoting.
Ideally though, they'll still sound unscripted.
All election candidates affiliated with a political
party will probably have been told look we don't want
you being robots. We want you to put things in your own words.
Otherwise if you get detected,
this is going to turn into a story in itself.
On the other hand, speaking spontaneously can also
get you into trouble.
Freelancing for a political leader
you know, can dog in four years if it's an important issue.
Vassy:
Tom Flanagan.
It was 2002 and Harper was the newly elected leader
of the Canadian Alliance Party.
He was answering questions when he went off script
and said this about Atlantic Canada.
There is dependency in the region that breeds
a culture of defeatism.
Vassy:
liberal policies were holding Atlantic Canada back
from realizing its full potential,
but Maritimers saw it as a slight against them.
Well the consequence was that in the election of 2004
when this issue was still very much alive in Atlantic Canada,
we did very poorly in that region.
We didn't win nearly as many as we hoped to win.
Vassy:
wouldn't be able to do their jobs without talking points.
Because we live in a world where everyone has a camera,
it's just too risky to come unprepared.
♪ ♪