You may have noticed that Erin O’Toole has been launching a new social media campaign about the dire state of our economy, using stock photo images to illustrate his points. Over my years in journalism, I have come to be very wary of the use of stock images by parties in their advertising, because much of it is inherently deceptive or manipulative (aside from being cheap to slap into their products) – and I will fully credit Glen McGregor for this.

“I don’t like being lied to with pictures any more than being lied to with words.” https://t.co/7kmefl1TTp

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) February 10, 2021

So, what have we seen with two of O’Toole’s posts? One of them was about January’s brutal job numbers, accompanied by a stock photo of a young white guy in a hoodie, looking somewhat distressed. The problem? Those same job numbers showed disproportionate losses among women and visible minorities because the most affected sectors were wholesale and retail trade, as well as accommodation and food services – which makes sense given all of the closures in the second wave. In other words, the images he put up was not only tone deaf, but speaks to just who he thinks his voter base will respond sympathetically to, which says a lot. (The only upside here is that he model was actually Canadian and not a Romanian, but when said model found out about it, he chimed in).

https://twitter.com/TunaPhish09/status/1359408430264377347

O’Toole posted another one yesterday about standing up for Canadian workers, using a photo of a (white) construction worker. But again, if you look at last month’s job numbers, construction jobs were actually up – they were the main driver of goods-producing jobs (which were a net gain rather than a net loss on the month). Again, though, this is about what O’Toole is signalling what kinds of jobs he thinks matters, and it’s not where the losses have been. As he starts to make a lot of noise about his recovery plans and supposed economic dream team, he is sending very loud signals about what he thinks the recovery should look like, and it appears to be pretty divorced from what everyone else thinks it should look like, and that is something worth paying attention to.

O’Toole chooses a construction worker stock image to illustrate his point. Construction is not under threat. In the January job numbers, construction job numbers were up, not down. #Brocovery https://t.co/fQhVMwnHJL

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 11, 2021

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau announced new transit funds, including a new permanent fund starting in 2026, giving municipalities time for long-term planning.
• As part of his presser, Trudeau called on premiers to start using the rapid testing kits distributed to provinces, before they start to expire.
• Trudeau also had a call with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and discussed vaccine production which could getting AstraZeneca doses from there.
• COVID outbreaks at Global Affairs offices in Ottawa are having an impact on the services they are supposed to be offering.
• The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that taxing services like Netflix could net some $1.3 billion over five years.
• AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde says that passing the government’s UNDRIP legislation will be the first step toward Indigenous self-determination.
• In advance of the Supreme Court hearing, here is the background on the case of the comedian fighting a human rights tribunal order for jokes about a disabled singer.
• Here is a look at how different parties are trying (or not trying) to boost the numbers of Black candidates running for them (especially in winnable ridings).
• As expected, Erin O’Toole shook up his shadow cabinet, moving Pierre Poilievre from finance to jobs and industry, and creating a new pandemic recovery portfolio.
• Former Liberal MP Raj Grewal is being allowed to continue practicing law while he awaits his criminal fraud trial related to his gambling addiction.
• Jason Kenney is downplaying the fact that two of his MLAs have signed on with the group of rogues calling for an end to lockdowns.
• Éric Grenier posits that the Conservatives have difficulty straying from being so Alberta-focused because it’s where the bulk of their fundraising comes from.

Odds and ends:

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