Is ‘Canada’s Broken’ a good slogan?

OAKVILLE, ONT.—I’ve been wondering lately about a possible slogan for Canada’s Conservative Party. More specifically, I’m wondering if it would be wise for the party to adopt the motto, “Canada’s Broken.” Of course, this has already become sort of a quasi-slogan for the Conservatives ever since their leader, Pierre Poilievre, noted in a speech a few months ago that “everything feels broken” in Canada. Indeed, that little bit of phraseology took off almost immediately, instantly triggering debate as to whether Canada was truly broken. Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got into the act, as he blatantly came out and assured everyone that “Canada is not broken.” So clearly, the phrase “Canada’s broken” comes packed with a lot of emotional punch. It’s also concise (fits on a bumper sticker), it’s straightforward and it’s easy to understand—all the hallmarks of a great political slogan. But, on the other hand, there’s still a big communication problem with saying Canada’s broken. To be blunt: it’s just too negative. Usually, political slogans put forward a positive spin. Think of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s famous feel-good “Morning in America” slogan. As a matter of fact, even if a political campaign wants to highlight the problems of an incumbent government, even if it’s trying to make the point that everything is terrible, it still tries to come up with a slogan that offers hope. For example, Rob Ford’s Toronto mayoralty campaign slogan was “Stop the gravy grain”; Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential slogan was “Make American Great Again," and, if you want to go back 100 years or so, Warren G. Harding’s U.S. presidential campaign slogan was “Return to Normalcy." In other words, the slogans of Ford, Trump and Harding were all promising to make things better. At the end of the day, people respond to that kind of positivity. That’s why, whenever I was helping groups come up with a name for their projects, I’d always stress they define themselves using positive language. For instance, if you want to set up an organization to oppose socialism, instead of calling it something like, “Canadians Who Hate Communism," call it, “Citizens for Freedom” or “Canadians for Free Markets.” This stress on positivity matters even for smaller communication details. One time, for example, I was putting together a brochure that included a list of issues we were promoting, and to emphasize each point more dramatically, the graphic designer had marked each item with an “X." I immediately called him up and said, “please change those “Xs” to checkmarks, it’s more positive." Anyway, getting back to the Conservatives, my point is it might be better for them to have a slogan that says, “Time to Fix Canada," rather than “Canada’s broken.” Or maybe not. After all, it could be argued that politics is becoming less about ideology and issues, and more of a battle between those who favour the status quo and those who oppose it. It could be also argued that Trudeau is a staunch defender of the status quo. And that could be a political problem for the prime minister, as a recent Leger poll indicated that a whopping 67 per cent of Canadians agree with the idea that Canada seems broken. In other words, they don’t like the status quo. This creates an interesting political dynamic. If Poilievre keeps saying “Canada is broken," that the status quo isn’t working, and Trudeau keeps responding by saying, “Everything is fine, let’s keep things the way they are”, it could work to the Conservative Party’s benefit. Heck, at the very least “Canada’s Broken” is a better slogan than “Return to Normalcy.” Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant. The Hill Times

Is ‘Canada’s Broken’ a good slogan?

It's concise, it’s straightforward, and it’s easy to understand—all the hallmarks of a great political slogan. But there’s still a big communication problem with saying Canada’s broken. It’s just too negative.

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Is ‘Canada’s Broken’ a good slogan?

It's concise, it’s straightforward, and it’s easy to understand—all the hallmarks of a great political slogan. But there’s still a big communication problem with saying Canada’s broken. It’s just too negative.

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