BC Business
There are no funny stories about people selling taxes. Think about it. There are stories about con artists who sell bridges or swamp land in Florida. There are stories of real artists who sell forgeries of the great masters’ “lesser-known works.” But the idea of “selling” a new tax is simply silly. People choke on taxes. They accept them through clenched teeth, like some sort of toxic Jell-O administered by a Dick Cheney-era CIA contractor.
There are no funny stories about people selling taxes.
Think about it. There are stories about con artists who sell bridges or swamp land in Florida. There are stories of real artists who sell forgeries of the great masters’ “lesser-known works.” But the idea of “selling” a new tax is simply silly. People choke on taxes. They accept them through clenched teeth, like some sort of toxic Jell-O administered by a Dick Cheney-era CIA contractor.
This is something that someone should have mentioned to Gordon Campbell last year because, perversely, he had a new tax to sell that was actually a good idea. It was a tax that would result in you paying less money to government, which on the face of it is unbelievable. It was a levy designed to shift the burden of taxation onto bad things, like pollution, and off of good things, like income or small-business profits. It was a tax worth selling.
But Campbell is not by nature a salesman. He’s a policy wonk, fond of ruminating over long, complicated position papers and, perhaps, a little impatient with explaining the contents to people who have not also done the work. So when his government introduced the B.C. carbon tax in February 2008, it did so with a triumphant flourish, like it was delivering a gift.
A year earlier, the BC Liberals had promised to take a leadership position in the battle to address climate change, and here was evidence of their sincerity. It was a modest step, but it was more courageous than anything being done anywhere in North America.
Landing as it did on the brink of an unprecedented spike in gas prices, the carbon tax quickly became a political flashpoint. The tax, said NDP leader Carole James, was both too small to make a difference and too huge to be tolerated. She called it a “gas tax” – regardless that it applied to the full range of fossil fuel products – and said it unfairly targeted anyone who was poor or who lived in rural B.C. or, especially, in the north.
The fact that this was untrue didn’t seem to matter. James had “framed” the issue: defining the public conversation as being about a heartless provincial tax grab, not as an important climate change initiative.
It would be churlish and unrealistic to criticize the BC Liberals for not anticipating the rise in gas prices, but there’s no question that they failed to explain their new policy. And as my PR friend Mike Sullivan likes to say, When it comes to introducing the public to a new issue, if you don’t tell them, somebody else will – and it will be bad.
There is a formula in public relations that I share with clients trying to get out of trouble – or to stay out of trouble:
• Do the right thing. • Be seen to be doing the right thing. • Don’t get No. 1 and No. 2 mixed up.
• Be seen to be doing the right thing.
• Don’t get No. 1 and No. 2 mixed up.
Analytical people such as Campbell sometimes make the mistake of thinking that doing the right thing is enough. It’s not. You have to communicate your position, even as you make sure that you’re doing the right thing for its own sake, not for the PR benefits.
In this instance, the Liberals did the right thing, implementing a policy that almost every economist agrees is the most transparent, efficient and effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But they failed at step two. Knowing that politicians have a credibility problem, they didn’t marshal third-party supporters who could endorse the tax. Knowing that climate change is confusing, they didn’t explain why a carbon tax is a solution, not a penalty. Having done the right thing, they weren’t seen to have done so.
The NDP, on the other hand, skipped over step one, choosing to do the expedient thing, for which they enjoyed a brief but significant political advantage.
That’s a shame, for two reasons. First, every time a politician uses public mistrust to gain partisan advantage, they erode that trust further. In today’s world – facing issues such as global warming – we need to be able to trust our government, and one another, more than ever. And second, we shouldn’t be playing politics with climate change; it’s just too important an issue. All positive action should be applauded, no matter where you stand on the political spectrum.
Jim Hoggan is president and founder of Vancouver public relations firm Hoggan & Associates