Team Trudeau: let’s talk about how we make sausages
I’ve received some pretty angry responses to the brief post below about the Trudeau folks from, er, Trudeau folks. Some have even taken the form of anonymous comments, which aren’t all that anonymous (I.P. and other identifying stuff load automatically).
Here’s my point, for those too obtuse to understand it: staffers shouldn’t talk about strategy in the media. Neither should candidates, for that matter.
When he oversaw the winning of three back-to-back majorities for Jean Chretien, John Rae would often say this: “When losing, say nothing. When winning, say less.” I don’t think he ever gave a single interview.
I mentioned that line to Don Guy, the Ontario Liberal campaign boss, and he had it made into a sign which went on the war room wall in 2003, 2007 and 2011. He didn’t give interviews about his world view, either.
In fairness, the Trudeau kids aren’t doing anything that a lot of the Martin, Dion and Ignatieff folks didn’t do, too. All of them were seduced by the media, and went along with fawning profiles about staff, interviews with Peter C. Newman, and so on.
But, in each of those cases, it’s interesting to note that no one ever found out all that much about the staff on the Conservative side. The Con staff refused to give interviews about anything. We all remember who won those elections, don’t we?
And while we are on this subject – which should be deeply boring for any sensible person – I don’t work for the Trudeau campaign. I don’t work for the Liberal Party of Canada, either. Instead, I am paid to write my views about politics. Most of the time, I’m pretty pro-Liberal. But not all the time.
Got that, Team Trudeau? I don’t work for Justin. And, in my opinion, nobody should be hearing about who does.
