Energy's Citizens: The Making of a Canadian Petro-Public.

Background Canada's fossil fuel industry has recently put citizen outreach at the centre of its political strategy. This is manifest in a public outreach campaign known as Canada's Energy Citizens (CEC), undertaken by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). Analysis This article uses interviews with CEC organizers and members to demonstrate how participation subsidies are used to enlist members. While much scholarly literature assumes corporate grassroots campaigns will hide the use of professional public relations labour and industry ties, findings show instead that CEC foreground its members' professional backgrounds and connections to the oil sector. Conclusions and implications Transparency does ideological work in the campaign, framing pro-oil advocacy as a licit social aim, and public relations labour as a normative model of citizen political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]