In this episode, Elizabeth Dubois chats with Melanie Paradis, President of Texture Communications, to dissect the theory of planned behaviour and its application in political communication. With Melanie’s extensive background in political strategy and public relations, and her roles on high-profile political campaigns, this discussion explores how psychological principles underpin effective political messaging and voter engagement strategies.

Additional Resources: 

• Elizabeth relies on The Theory of Planned Behaviour: Reactions and Reflections and Knowledge and the Prediction of Behavior: The Role of Information Accuracy in the Theory of Planned Behavior to explain the theory. 
• Melanie underlines the role of third-party advertising as it relates to elections and advocacy in Canada. You can learn more about this through an article published by Policy Options titled Third parties strive to become a driving force in elections. 
• Melanie describes the Conservative Party of British Columbia’s "I’m trying something new" advertisement, released in October 2024, as an example of an advertisement targeting swing voters.
• Throughout the episode, both Elizabeth and Melanie refer to foreign interference  and how misinformation and disinformation are impacting the Canadian political communications environment. Similar themes were discussed in the Wonks and War Rooms episode Propaganda, Government Comms, and Disinformation with Shuvaloy Majumdar. 
• Melanie makes several references to the 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership race, where Andrew Scheer beat 13 other candidates by a narrow margin. You can learn more about this leadership race, and the lessons learned from it, in Eric Grenier’s analysis titled What the 2017 Conservative leadership race told us about what it takes to win. 

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.