Roundup: Crafting an image

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The National Post had an interesting feature looking at the construction of Justin Trudeau’s image over the course of this election, with his carefully chosen images like the boxing, or the canoeing, and so on. Of course, Trudeau had this set out since he began the leadership contest, with an official photographer who has followed him around everywhere since. And yes, there is a deliberate crafting of the image he has been putting forward – vital, positive, authentic, all chosen to look natural and not artificial. This is nothing new, and what the piece didn’t mention was that Stephen Harper has been busy doing the same thing for the past number of years. Harper has a team of photographers and videographers on staff who have similarly been engaged in crafting an image of Harper that he has been trying to build, albeit it’s one of him being leaderly but not glamorous or robust. Where the divergence has been is the way in which Harper has crafted this image to such a controlling extent that he has gradually been shutting out legitimate news media and photojournalists and then distributes handout photos from his own photographers instead. Which, as we know, is not journalism but stenopgraphy. It’s gotten to the point where he has been self-generating “news” videos (the 24/Seven series) in order to bypass the press. Trudeau, to his credit, has not yet begun engaging in this kind of behaviour, and has been far more open to media availabilities and photojournalism, where media cameras are at the same events where his photographer is. That remains an important distinction – sure, he may have some great shots as part of his campaign media, but the real media is still there too, and that’s an important distinction.

On the campaign:

  • Stephen Harper is visiting Conservative ridings to shore up incumbents, while using props to illustrate what he calls Trudeau’s tax increases.
  • Thomas Mulcair is visiting ridings he hopes to pick up, promising his first bill will be to hike corporate taxes.
  • Justin Trudeau went to Iqaluit and talked Nutrition North before returning to Ottawa to serve Thanksgiving dinner at the Salvation Army with local candidates. This week he’s visiting ridings he doesn’t hold, pitching to Conservative voters.

Good reads:

  • Advance polls are up dramatically over 2011, but not without some hiccoughs. Things like “printing error” pre-marked ballots, elections workers quitting, and poll locations in Nunavut that need a plane ride to get to.
  • An advocacy group says that Elections Canada is not doing enough to help people with disabilities vote.
  • The team of OSCE election monitors is now in place to ensure that the Fair Election Act changes actually results in a fair election.
  • NDP incumbent John Rafferty collided with a bear while campaigning up near Thunder Bay – but he’s still going.
  • Here’s a fact check on what the Conservatives say the Liberals are promising (hint: they’re not all true).
  • The National Shipbulding Procurement Strategy means the Seaspan yards in Vancouver are now ramping up production.
  • Shannon Gormley notes that with the niqab debate, suddenly everyone’s a feminist (never mind if they’ve never been particularly feminist before).

Odds and ends:

The former Conservative staffer who got an immunity deal in the robocalls case has been blacklisted from other campaigns.

Scott Feschuk gives us his satirical look at Harper’s fear index.