SAINTS PRESERVE US

The Ministry of Truth

Oh, whither Alberta. I live in the only Canadian province or territory that possesses what its government describes in all seriousness as a ‘war room.’ Thing is, the United States hasn’t attempted an invasion of Canada for more than two hundred years and, gee, the Russians don’t appear to be coming anytime soon. War is a federal jurisdiction, anyway. Still, a bunker mentality coupled with an inward-looking ‘us and them’ outlook apparently makes fine policy.

The Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) is neither an industry lobby association nor an independent think tank. It is instead the recently grown propaganda lizard tail of Alberta’s ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) government. Publicly funded in a winter of austerity to an annual tune of $30-million, the vaguely Orwellian CEC is also shielded from the public’s right to know; freedom of information requests are simply missed messages, droppings in tailings ponds.

The centre’s mission is twofold: Alberta’s archaic single resource economy based on unrefined fossil fuel extraction must be promoted and preserved at any cost; Alberta’s enemies, who include indigenous Canadians, eastern Canadians, British Columbians and rich, sinister foreign forces who believe in viable energy alternatives, must be tarred and feathered. It’s just so much easier to complain and spin as opposed to looking forward and then making some harsh and necessary (albeit unpopular) decisions on behalf of the electorate for the greater good. Goddamn, if seven months into a four-year mandate isn’t the perfect time to display some sensible, worldly political courage; we voters can be awfully forgetful years away from an election.

The UCP’s ‘Ministry of Truth’ botched it from the start. Every war room needs a logo apparently because even SPECTRE in the James Bond movies has a logo (SMERSH, a genuine and lethal Soviet assassination bureau did not get hung up on PR). The CEC’s commissioned logo, designed by a Calgary firm I’ve never heard of, was one for this digital age, bold and simple, an easily distinguishable visual prompt intended to function as an iPhone thumbnail or social media avatar. Touch this?

Consider a classic modern logo: Amazon: a soft, curvy lowercase font, underscored by a smiling arrow that points from A to Z; if it doesn’t say it all it surely suggests possibilities. The CEC logo looked like a pair of half drawn cubes accentuated by an imperfect isosceles triangle which might be a shadow inside the smaller cube and which of course points in three directions. Geometry can be tricky for artists but the real problem was that the CEC symbol was exactly the same as that of a NASDAQ-traded US software firm. Their logo in its original colour and context remains a cryptic symbol. It doesn’t indicate anything to me about what that company does. Maybe they sell square Marks-A-Lots.

Any reputable ad shop will do its due diligence before presenting a client with a proposed logo or slogan. Any client with a shred of common sense will pay those minor fees upfront because the alternative, litigation following the production of all related materials, is an expensive hassle and ultimately, once public knowledge, destroys credibility utterly. Can’t even get that right, eh? How hard can it be?

What’s worrisome about the CEC (and other such agencies), its inauspicious and inept debut aside, is that it exists. It used to be that government communiqués fell into two categories: public service announcements and press releases from various ministries. The latter were never published or broadcast verbatim by the Canadian media. Beat reporters, knowledgeable and dogged, not party acolytes, would vet the capital’s spin. The decline of traditional media in the Information Age has created a gaping niche only to be filled by the likes of CEC; we are losing our objective filters.

More and more we are watching and reading what they want us to watch and read. Should I find the idea of a war room and a stolen logo laughable, should I be disinclined to absorb what they want me to, well, I can easily find alternative sources of misinformation that dovetail with my own ill-informed views. But what’s the point of that? It’s too easy to take an inflexible position. I may not qualify for MENSA but nor am I simple. I don’t want war; I’d be happier with a modicum of civil, rational debate and a little forward thinking. Inclusive discussion could ensure everybody wins.

meGeoff has been your most reliable, balanced and accurate source of nonsense since 2013. Sign up for e-mail alerts from the Crooked 9.