After every election, councils arrive with energy and ideas — and almost no guidance on how to talk about them. Here’s why that’s a problem, and how to fix it.
Imagine it’s a Tuesday evening, three weeks after the election. Your new councillor — enthusiastic, well-intentioned, genuinely excited about the job — runs into a neighbour at the grocery store. The neighbour has a lot of feelings about the proposed recreation centre. The councillor, wanting to be helpful and relatable, shares a few thoughts off the top of their head.
By Thursday, those thoughts are circulating in the local Facebook group. By Friday, the communications manager is quietly assembling a holding statement. By Monday, the CAO is having a gentle conversation about “messaging alignment.”
Nobody did anything wrong, exactly. The councillor was just being a person. The problem is that nobody told them they’d stopped being a private person the moment the votes were counted.
The orientation gap is real and costly
Most council orientations cover the essentials: governance structure, procedural bylaws, the code of conduct, how to read a financial statement. Important stuff. But communications? It’s often treated as an afterthought — a five-minute slide about “when in doubt, call the CAO” tucked at the end of a long day.
That gap has consequences. Not because new councillors are careless, but because they genuinely don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t understand the difference between their personal opinion and an official Council position. They don’t realize that commenting on their personal Facebook page about a matter still before Council creates real problems. They don’t know that answering a resident’s question at a community event with their off-the-cuff opinion — instead of “I’ll look into that” — can land them in hot water before they’ve even settled into their seat.
“I’ll look into that” isn’t a dodge. It’s a smart, honest response that buys time to consult with staff, align on messaging, and get back to the resident with something accurate and consistent. That’s not evasion. That’s good governance.
Every councillor is a spokesperson
Here’s the thing that catches new elected officials off guard: the spokesperson mindset doesn’t just apply to press conferences. It applies to the grocery store, the hockey rink, the community association meeting, and yes, the comment section at 11 p.m. on a Wednesday.
Every interaction shapes public trust. A councillor who handles a tough question well in a casual conversation builds credibility. One who gets defensive, overpromises, or accidentally reveals something that wasn’t ready to be public shapes public trust too. It just isn’t good.
Spokesperson skills are learnable. Bridging, flagging, holding statements, the two-sided message aren’t spin, they’re tools for being genuinely helpful without creating chaos. But you have to teach them before the chaos happens, not after.
Social media deserves its own conversation
New councillors often come in with active personal accounts, a community following, and a genuine desire to stay connected. That’s great. But the line between “engaged local leader” and “loose cannon posting opinions about items still before Council” is thinner than it looks.
A newly elected councillor joins a local Facebook group to stay informed. A spirited debate breaks out about the new recycling program. The councillor, who voted for it and feels strongly about it, starts responding to comments. Two hours later, they’re in a thread with 47 replies, someone has called them a bureaucrat, and the communications manager has a new item on their to-do list for tomorrow morning.
Some things that need to be covered explicitly, in plain language, before anyone posts anything: What’s the difference between sharing a Town post and creating your own version of it? What do you do when someone tags you in a complaint about a service issue? What are the rules around community Facebook groups? These aren’t complicated questions but they need answers before the situation arises, not during it.
What good orientation actually looks like
It doesn’t have to be a full day (though a full day isn’t too much to ask). A focused 90-minute session in the first weeks after the election can make a real difference if it covers the right things.
Role clarity is the foundation. Councillors set direction and speak to the “why.” Staff handle operations and technical detail. When a resident asks a councillor about a service complaint, the right move isn’t to solve it on the spot it’s to acknowledge the concern and route it to the people who can actually fix it.
After that: key messages and how to build them. Bridging and flagging techniques. Social media guidelines that are specific and practical, not vague and aspirational. And real scenarios and practice.
The communications manager shouldn’t have to introduce themselves to new councillors during a crisis. That relationship needs to be built at orientation, with a clear explanation of what the communications team does, how to reach them, and why working together makes everyone’s job easier.
The case for investing in this
Most new elected officials are nervous. They want to do a good job. They are actively looking for guidance on how to handle the situations they know are coming. A well-designed orientation doesn’t limit them but it will give them confidence. It builds the working relationship between Council and communications before anything goes wrong. And it reduces the exhausting cycle of reacting, correcting, and rebuilding trust that happens when guidance comes too late.
Your new councillors have opinions, social media accounts, and well-meaning neighbours with questions. The only question is whether they have the tools to handle it well.
Give them the tools.
Five key takeaways
- Every elected official is a spokesperson from day one no matter where they are or who they are talking to. Orientation should make that explicit.
- “I’ll look into that” is a complete answer. It gives councillors time to consult staff and respond with a message that’s accurate and aligned. It’s far better than an unvetted opinion shared on the spot.
- Social media needs its own focused session, including clear guidance on personal vs. official accounts, what to do when tagged in complaints, and how to amplify municipal communications without creating competing narratives.
- Role clarity is the foundation of everything. Councillors speak to the “why,” staff handle operations. When elected officials understand this, they’re more confident, not less.
- Build the communications relationship before anything goes wrong. Orientation is the right time to introduce the communications function, establish trust, and make it easy for councillors to ask for help.
Julie Rogers Consulting 
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