Conservative cost-cutting should start with new partisan TV ad campaign
For Immediate Release
January 22, 2010
Conservative cost-cutting should start with new partisan TV ad campaign
OTTAWA – Contrary to claims that prudent spending is on the way, the Conservatives have launched a brand new, multi-million dollar advertising campaign using tax-payer money to promote their so-called Economic Plan, Liberal Treasury Board Critic Siobhan Coady said.
“If Stockwell Day, our newly-minted Treasury Board President, is serious about cutting unnecessary and wasteful expenditures, he should start with the government’s new multi-million dollar, partisan-propaganda TV advertising campaign, “ said Ms. Coady.
“Stephen Harper is full of lame excuses for using your money to promote himself, with his laughable claim that government advertising is economic stimulus for media outlets. Spending millions of taxpayer dollars on television ads promoting this government’s partisan agenda makes it pretty clear that Mr. Day has no more credibility when it comes to prudent spending than his predecessor.”
Coady went on to point out the Harper Conservatives’ contradictory behavior, rationalizing cuts to organizations that challenge their political agenda while increasing advertising spending to promote themselves. The Conservatives have recently cut funding to three prominent organizations that have been critical of the government, including the Canadian Council on Learning, the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, and to KAIROS, an international development agency made up Canada’s churches.
“On the one hand, the Conservatives are saying they need to be frugal, using this as an excuse to punish organizations that have been rightly critical of this government’s record. On the other hand, they waste money on TV ads to make Canadians believe that they’re hard at work when instead they’ve shut down Parliament, where they should be doing the job Canadians elected them to do.”
From January to June of last year alone, the Conservatives spent $56 million on so-called Economic Plan advertising. With this new TV campaign and ads running throughout the fall, this figured has likely doubled, breaking the $100 million mark.
“By launching this new TV campaign to advertise their so-called Economic Plan, almost a full year since the last budget, the Conservatives are simply trying to change the channel,” continued Coady. “Let’s not kid ourselves – this is partisan propaganda on an unprecedented scale, with no other purpose than to try to distract Canadians from Stephen Harper’s unpopular decision to shut down Parliament.”
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Contact:
Office of Siobhan Coady, MP: 613-992-0927