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Alberta spends nearly $500K on energy ad campaign in U.S. capital

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The province is spending nearly half a million dollars on an online campaign aimed at U.S. lawmakers. Chelan Skulski reports.

Alberta is the Answer is the tag line of a new campaign launched earlier this month by the province targeting policy makers in the U.S. capital.

“(It’s) an effort to reintroduce and remind American legislators about the significance of the Alberta-U.S. energy relationship,” Julia Bareman, the managing director of Alberta’s U.S. offices, told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday.

The $482,000 online campaign, which is slated to run through March, “was never designed originally as a tariff response,” Bareman said. “It was really about establishing that energy conversation.”

The head of one Washington, D.C.-based marketing firm says the Alberta campaign comes off as “very naive and very serene.”

“If this were an ad for tourism, I would grade it an ‘A’,” Gal Borenstein, the chief executive officer and founder of Borenstein Group Inc., told CTV News Edmonton.

He says the campaign would be more effective if it cited data focused on impacts on the U.S. economy and it changed mediums.

“If you aren’t on the cable channels he is watching, you are unlikely to have any impact,” Borenstein said, referencing U.S. President Donald Trump, who officially took office last week and is threatening to impose tariffs on Canadian goods starting Feb. 1.

The U.S. White House confirms tariffs are coming for both Canada and Mexico.

The campaign aims to highlight the ‘win-win’ relationship between Alberta and the U.S., citing approximately US$100 billion in energy exports shipped to that country is then upgraded into US$300 billion in product refined by American workers. The province says roughly 904,000 U.S. jobs are supported by trade with the province through a trade relationship worth $134.7 billion.

Political strategist Corey Hogan questions why any mention of Canada was left out, adding there is nothing about the visual ads that highlight Alberta energy.

“What struck me about this ad campaign wasn’t what was in it, but what wasn’t: the word ‘Canada’ cannot be found anywhere in this campaign,” Hogan said Tuesday.

Hogan previously worked for both UCP and NDP provincial governments.

Bradley Lafortune, the head of Public Interest Alberta, says the province is throwing good money after bad, and that the campaign is a complete waste of money. He says those dollars would be better spent on struggling social programs.“It could pay for 10-15 caseworkers who are processing very complicated applications from Albertans who need supports now,” Lafortune said.

The Premier’s office defends the campaign, writing in a statement it is “ensuring energy security, reliability and affordability for Americans, Canadians and Albertans for many years to come. This campaign is targeted towards lawmakers and government officials in Washington D.C. to promote Alberta’s role in North American Energy security.”

The Premier’s Office also cited the importance of the timing of the campaign given the threat of U.S. tariffs, adding, “(it’s) more important now more than ever to explain to an American audience how crucial of a role Alberta’s energy plays in their day-to-day lives.”