For a minute Parks Canada had us all fooled this week.
With a sly twist of words, the agency had media reporting that an annual park pass purchased in 2016 would be valid until 2018. Two years for the price of one.
And, although that鈥檚 true, there鈥檚 an important distinction to make鈥攜ou see, whether you purchase a pass in 2016 or not, every person who visits a national park in 2017 will enter for free.
That was one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau鈥檚 campaign promises last year鈥攆ree entrance to national parks, national historic sites and marine conservation areas in 2017 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Canada鈥檚 Confederation.
By all accounts, that鈥檚 good news.
This leaves us questioning, why can鈥檛 good news just be good news?
Why did Parks have to spin it into great news?
By changing the message to make the news seem better than it actually is, Parks muddied up the story, causing confusion for park users and the media, with the Calgary Herald first reporting Parks鈥� version of the story, only to later rewrite its headline and the first few paragraphs of its story to reflect the actual news鈥攖hat park admission will be free in 2017.
Clearly, this is not an effective way of communicating with the public.
When releasing news, whether good or bad, we鈥檙e used to spin from government agencies, but to receive such convoluted information on a good news story is out of the ordinary.
By contrast, Parks鈥� communication on the new reservation system for campgrounds was clear and concise, without any extra spin, allowing the media to clearly relay the message to the public鈥攔eservations can be made this month: start planning your national park vacation!
Perhaps Parks is concerned that people will wait until 2017 to visit Jasper National Park, rather than purchasing an annual pass in 2016.
Whatever the agency鈥檚 worry, by twisting the message, it didn鈥檛 do itself any favours.
Instead of cashing in on a good news story, here we are starting the year off writing about unnecessary PR stunts.
