No official policy change mandating use of ‘Harper Government’
The Conservatives now claim there has been no policy change to rebrand the government of Canada as the “Harper government.”
Treasury Board head Stockwell Day, who oversees the Federal Identity Program, says neither policy nor practice has changed the way civil servants refer to the government in federal communications material.
Day told the Commons he’s found more than 100 examples of previous governments referring to themselves by the name of the prime minister of the day.
Civil servants in four federal departments have told The Canadian Press they’ve recently been instructed to use “Harper government” in communications.
A Google search for the words “Harper government” under the government of Canada domain name turns up 300 references in the last month alone and almost 600 since November.
Government websites used the “Harper government” moniker just 124 times in the first eight months of 2010, but both Day and the Prime Minister’s Office insist civil servants have not been ordered to use the term more often.
