Californian prairies, Soviet jets, a university in Kiev: The Conservative Party of Canada (PCC) has removed a video by Pierre Poilievre praising life in Canada against a backdrop of royalty-free images taken from the four corners of the globe.
The video, a little over three minutes long, is based on a segment of the Conservative leader’s speech during his visit to the famous Calgary Stampede in June. It was posted online over the weekend, then quickly removed after receiving negative comments and ridicule from internet users.
A delightful Canada
It begins with Mr. Poilievre, wearing a white cowboy hat on his head, telling the already-won Calgary crowd: “It’s easy to forget what home and hope look like.”
Music that evokes hope for better days, he describes in detail what a successful Canadian life is. He imagines a father who, after dropping his children off at school in a pickup truck powered by Canadian oil, returns home through construction sites of new affordable homes and fields full of Canadian barley and wheat.
The new jets in the skies are practicing for the country’s security. These jets are visible from the local university, where the son is attending a class where he can debate “without fear of being censored.”
The scene culminates in an evening around a table, where the whole family gathers around game meat — hunted with “fully legal” Canadian firearms — in honor of a son celebrating his 10 years of sobriety.
Images from everywhere except Canada
The party spokesperson did not answer our question regarding removal of the video.
Based on responses from Internet users
We see, among other things, a herd of cattle roaming the valleys of California, the mountains of Utah, a sunset in Indonesia, a house under construction in Slovenia, a university in Kiev, a family at the table in Italy, a pickup truck from North Dakota or even a young student at a school in Serbia.
The exception to the rule: a Petro-Canada gas station when it came time to describe Canadian energy.
It is better to delete it
Bernard Motulsky, an expert in political marketing and professor at UQAM, sees this as “a form of false representation” which, without being extremely serious, can undermine the credibility of the message conveyed by the conservatives.
“It’s mostly clumsiness. It’s not criminal, but it’s not clever either. I feel like people are making fun of me or they think of me as someone who doesn’t really know how to recognize things,” he analyzes. “We don’t like to be shown images that don’t represent what we’ve been told they represent.”
“The video had some flaws, to put it politely,” agreed Conservative councillor Tim Powers.
“I think the Conservatives probably want to be in sync with everything Canadian, and the fact that there’s no Canadian view creates an opportunity for their opponents,” says the president of business firm Public Summa Strategies.
In cases like this, it’s better to fix it immediately by deleting the video than trying to justify it, Mr. Powers adds. Although they probably won’t admit their “mistake,” he believes they will at least have learned a lesson from it.