TOUCHDOWN – FEDS GO “OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY”

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: A total of 80 federal cabinet ministers, other Conservative MPs and Senators.  $300 million-odd in new stimulus funding initiatives, announced in locations literally across the country, from seawalls to literacy programs.  Critics denounced it as fiscal year-end (and pre-election) burnoff, with the Liberals even calling it “Harper’s gravy train” in an attempt to put the PM at odds with Toronto’s tightwad mayor, Rob Ford.  The attacks were predictable, but from a communications standpoint, the gambit was a Touchdown on several fronts.  First, it’s a classic “outside the beltway” manoeuver, designed to take the story outside the realm of the Parliamentary Press Gallery and into the local and regional media.  Second, it localizes the “stimulus” story in very tangible terms:  this structure, that job skills program, right here in your community.  It generated huge amounts of local media coverage, underscoring the “here’s what the government has done for us lately” kind of message.  And finally, on the eve of an anticipated election campaign, it gave some ink and airtime to Conservative caucus members who normally lose the spotlight on jobs and economy matters to the PM or other cabinet ministers.