Categories: Need to know

Getting the word out

PMO spent nearly $50,000 to boost Canada’s profile in American media

by macleans.ca on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 11:56am - 4 Comments

Getting the U.S. media to pay attention to Stephen Harper doesn’t come cheap. During last April’s Summit of the Americas, the Prime Minister’s Office spent $24,000 to have Mike McCurry, Bill Clinton’s former press secretary, set up interviews with the New York Times and Fox News, among other outlets, as well as provide “communications advice” to Harper about how best to present Canada’s positions to an American audience. It wasn’t the first time Harper has tapped former White House officials to help him get his message out. Ari Fleisher, George W. Bush’s former press secretary, was tapped to handle similar duties during the G20 meetings in London, for which Fleisher was paid $24,500.

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Tags: Canada

http://intensedebate.com/people/psiclone psiclone

sounds like a good deal to me? I have responsible for promoting non profit media events and have spent almost as much and gotten way less … I say keep up the good work harper.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

This assumes, of course, that there would be absolutely zero interest from American media outlets were an existing government or PMO staffer to make a few calls.

The Prime Minister of Canada and a non-profit group aren't entirely analagous.

http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

In the grander scheme of government spending, whatever. But the concept of "raising our profile" seems futile, given that even our most insane political coups barely make page 24 below the fold down there.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

$50,000 is less than one millionth of our deficit. I just can't rouse myself to care about a national profile-raising attempt that cost a small fraction of Ottawa's annual expenditure on paperclips and staples.