General

Canada doesn’t have a constitutional monarchy. It has a “Harper government.”

Tories re-brand government moniker in government communications

It’s official: the Harper government is now calling itself the Harper government. Public servants were told in a directive late last year that the “Government of Canada” moniker in federal communications should be replaced with the words “Harper government.” Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister’s spokesman, told The Globe and Mail that this “a long-standing practice that accurately reflects the government’s leadership, regardless of who was the prime minister.” He pointed to government releases in the past that referred to the “Paul Martin government” and the “Chrétien government.” So what’s the big deal? Journalists routinely use the phrase when reporting the Conservative government’s actions. Says Jonathan Rose, a specialist in political communications at Queen’s University: “It is one thing for journalists or even the public to use the more partisan ‘Harper government,’ but it is another thing for the state to equate the Government of Canada with the leader of the governing party.”

The Globe and Mail

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