Touchdown: Ignatieff scores with sound bite

Budgets are complicated business. Lots of math. Ditto for matters of minority government parliamentary procedure, so when the two come together as they did this week in Ottawa, it's beyond byzantine. The best friend of any communicator in complex situations is an effective sound bite that crystallizes the whole enchilada into an easy to understand line or two. All eyes were on Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, awaiting word as to his party's next move in the wake of the Harper government's big spending, big deficit stimulus-oriented budget. Would the Liberals follow the NDP and Bloc Quebecois and vote against the budget? Would that lead to an election? Would the coalition of the opposition parties hold? What would it take for the Liberals to support the budget, thus keeping the Conservatives in power for the foreseeable future, anyway? So many questions, so many issues, so much potential for complicated answers that would leave many Canadians scratching their heads. "We are putting this government on probation," was Ignatieff's response, and it proved to be THE quote which was picked up by broadcast and print reporters alike, and pasted into headlines far and wide. "We will be watching like hawks to make sure that the investments Canadians need actually reach them," he followed, and later clarified that he is not giving Harper a green light, declaring it instead "a flashing yellow light" and warning the PM that he should "proceed with extreme caution." Regardless of what one may think about the content of the budget and the politics of Ignatieff's reaction, he employed a range of good quotable quotes which took a complicated situation and spelled it out succinctly and effectively - and that's a communications Touchdown.