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Originally Posted by Red Ice Player
Harper Government=CBC speak. I don't recall hearing "Chrétien Government" when the Liberals were in power. Its the most obvious sign of the CBC bias.
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This is simply not true.
The PMO directed all federal government agencies to stop using the term "The Government of Canada" and instead start using "The Harper Government" when issuing press releases or otherwise dealing with the media.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1929175/
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...a directive went out to public servants late last year that “Government of Canada” in federal communications should be replaced by the words “Harper Government.”
Public servants from four different line departments told The Canadian Press the instruction came from “the Centre” — meaning the Prime Minister's Office and the Privy Council Office that serves the prime minister.
[...]
Treasury Board spokesman Robert Bousquet said by e-mail “the use of the expression ‘Harper Government' is not prohibited by either the Treasury Board's Federal Identity Program Policy nor the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada.”
Mr. Bousquet added in a brief phone interview, “In fact it's factual, in that it is the government of the day.”
Indeed, journalists routinely use the “Harper government” to describe Conservative government actions. But the moniker's employment by the government itself is raising hackles among more than just some strait-laced civil servants.
“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,” said Jonathan Rose, a specialist in political communications at Queen's University.
[...]
“It is not the Harper Government,” Mr. Cappe said in an interview, tersely enunciating each word. “It is the Government of Canada.
“It's my government and it's your government.”
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