The Sponsorship Scandal as Communication: The Rise of Politicized and Strategic Communications in the Federal Government

Abstract

The Canadian "sponsorship scandal" provides an opportunity to examine how communications in the federal government has become an increasingly strategic function that has shifted from information provision to promotion, and from substance to image. This article traces how government communications became institutionalized and centralized, using the sponsorship program as an example of how strategic government communications has become embedded in government structures and practices. It finds that the sponsorship program, like other government strategic communications efforts, is a product of politicized government communications practices and activities. The article suggests that strategic communications has led public policymaking and, as demonstrated in the sponsorship program, may have additional impacts on what has been called the "democratic deficit.”