Can Kinder Morgan win over locals on the Trans Mountain expansion plans tonight?

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BURNABY (NEWS1130) – You could call it the PR battle over Burnaby Mountain.

Kinder Morgan is holding a telephone town hall tonight in an effort to change people’s minds about its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion plans.

The energy giant hopes to alleviate some of the concerns that were voiced so vocally while it was doing surveying work on the mountain last month.

But marketing expert Lindsay Meredith with SFU says it will be very difficult to change opinions because the company let environmental groups get their message out to the public first.

“They let the conservationist groups, the environmentalists, the Aboriginals get the jump on them, influence public opinion and therefore, politicians. Now guess what? They’re coming from behind. The horse is out of the barn guys, where the hell is your head?”

He says Kinder Morgan will no doubt be paying attention tonight to see how it can counter environmental arguments.

“What Kinder Morgan will do is they’ll be sitting down in a back room, collectively eyeballing this and saying ‘What are all the negative aspects we have brought forward and what is our position to counter each of these particular arguments?”

But it’s hard to bounce back once you fall behind.

“You give that opportunity to the other guy [and] he has now positioned you as the evil source — if you will, the black side. And it’s very tough to come back from that situation once the other side has positioned you in a negative attribution light,” says Meredith.

But he adds the company doesn’t necessarily have to win the minds of hard-liners — those who protested every day on Burnaby Mountain.

He says most people are committed to one viewpoint; it’s those on the fence Kinder Morgan will target.

“Are you going to convert these guys and make them want to marry your daughter? Not a chance. Are you going to try to convince some of them to change their hard-line position and become not so hard-line? Maybe moderate, or if they are moderate, maybe become neutral? If that happens, then you’re successful.”

Over 120 people were arrested for crossing the police line on Burnaby Mountain.

Tonight’s town hall runs from 7 to 8 p.m.; registration ends at noon today.

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