Officials should try clickbait to get message across
My computer thinks I live in the past. That must be the case, because these are the stories it keeps urging me to read:
“Tonya Harding now will literally drop your jaw!”
“What Monica Seles looks like now is shocking!”
“Susan Anton today will leave you speechless!”
This last one confused me a bit. Susan Anton was a household name as an entertainer in the 1980s, but I had forgotten about that. I thought my computer was talking about Suzanne Anton, B.C.’s attorney general. I have no idea what she did in the 1980s.
I thought: “Shouldn’t that be ‘Mike de Jong will leave you speechless?’ ” De Jong, as B.C.’s finance minister, will reveal this year’s provincial budget today.
Just like the news feed on your phone, governments hit you with headlines on budget day, highlighting the bits that they want you to notice. Then their political foes deliver sound bites in response. This is particularly true in election years, of which this is one. (This is one of the sideeffects of U.S.-style fixed-date elections: the campaigning drags on like an Iron Butterfly drum solo.)
We have already heard hints of what will be unveiled today, including some form of tax cut. On Monday, the province announced schools will get $29.4 million for supplies, which works out to 50 bucks a kid. It also announced $140 million for mental health. Last week, it was a $50-a-month increase in disability benefits.
The B.C. Liberals’ headlines will be countered by the opposition, which will try to get you to pay attention to both what’s not in the budget (Medical Services Plan reform, say, or a $15-an-hour minimum wage) and what has been buried in the fine print of the hundreds of pages of documents (which is where you discover the government plans to, say, sell Prince Rupert to Alaska).
There are, in truth, thousands of little bits of news scattered throughout the documents. They are where the day-to-day hard truth of government is to be found, the line items that lay out exactly how much revenue is expected to come from what source, and where it will — and will not — be spent.
It’s only the real numbers nerds who drill down far enough to unearth the nuggets, though. In a world where the gullible swallow easy slogans like Make America Great Again as a substitute for complex policy, don’t expect Supplement To The Estimates/Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2018, to hit the bestseller list anytime soon.
If the Finance Ministry really wanted people to pay attention to the entire budget, it would dump the dry accountantspeak and replace it with the same language as the clickbait on your computer:
• “The one weird trick the Canada Revenue Agency doesn’t want you to know: the B.C. mining flow-through share tax credit has been EXTENDED”
• “Whoa! The 10 shocking reasons routine capital maintenance spending by health authorities is higher.”
• “In 2016 the taxpayer-supported debt-to-revenue ratio was 92.7 per cent. What it looks like now is INSANE!!!”
Government politicians might want to follow the same tack:
• “This $50 disability benefit increase will restore your faith in humanity!”
• “The 20 classroom supplies that will BLOW YOUR MIND (hint: Pink Pearl erasers don’t even make the list!)”
• “The new B.C. tax break that will make Justin Trudeau crazy with jealousy.” This last one will be accompanied by a photo of the prime minister with his shirt off. The opposition parties could take the same approach:
• “Christy Clark tore up the teachers’ contract in 2002 and you’ll never guess what the Supreme Court of Canada did next!”
• “Shh! The Liberals’ secret to financial success: Earn big $$$ from cash-for-access fundraisers”
• “What you can buy with a $15-an-hour minimum wage is AMAZING!” This one will also be accompanied by a photo of Trudeau with his shirt off, just because.
This is good strategy for all sides in an election year. Condense the message. Make it simple. Decide where to shine the spotlight and keep it there. Reduce political discourse to clickbait and YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS!!!