VERITS: TOUCHDOWN - HARPER SPINS GOOD FLU BLAME GAME

Let’s start off with a reminder that this space isn’t about partisan politics, it’s about communications plays. OK, game on: the whole flu shot thing is a crap-fest for all levels of government, because it has the optics of being a giant mess, and no one seems happy about how it has been handled – even those who have gotten the shot. The populace is thinking “a pox on all your houses.” So from a communications standpoint, it becomes a game of defense: he who can best articulate why they suck least, wins. And, based on the latest review of comments from the feds, provinces and municipal public health units, I give a (purely unscientific and entirely opinion-based) Touchdown to the federal government. I thought Prime Minister Stephen Harper put forth a pretty credible defense in the House of Commons yesterday, noting that “there will be another 1.8 million doses available next week, which is a lot more than what the provinces are able to deliver (to people) at this point.” Then, following that pointed observation, he threw out a bone saying “this is by far the largest-scale and quickest vaccination the provinces have ever attempted in this country. Rather than criticize them, I think we should encourage them in their work.” Harper’s narrative, coupled with widely reported comments from provincial and public health officials to the effect that they weren’t as ready as they should have been, sufficiently moves the ball down to the lower tiers to fight the spin war there. To wit, yesterday’s Globe & Mail blackline: “More than half of vaccine doses sitting in storage – Millions of available flu shots have yet to be injected because Ottawa’s early approval meant provinces weren’t ready to deliver them.” I’m not saying it makes Harper bulletproof, but it does give him the spin win this week.