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Election haze underway

Every election governments step up their communications.
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If you subscribe to any of the government’s social media or news feeds, you may have noticed an increase in the number of posts over the last few weeks.

We certainly have. At times, it seems like there is a new press release or advisory from the province arriving in our email every few minutes. Not that there isn’t a fairly regular stream, but let’s just say that if we were printing all the releases out, several forests would be at risk.

It’s not unusual for the a sitting government to ramp up their communications, both through the media and various paid advertising channels. It’s part of the pre-election campaign campaigning for the government to try to get the message out there of ‘look what we’re doing for you, don’t you want us back?’

The program funding announcements and re-announcements also carry the question of whether the money will be available if the B.C. Liberal’s don’t happen to come out as winners on May 9

B.C.’s auditor general has warned the B.C. Liberals that the provincial government’s advertising campaign promoting the province’s budget is too political.

It’s tough and more than a little unfair for any opposing political parties, who don’t have access to the provincial tax coffers. The government isn’t supposed to be using taxes to promote themselves, but that’s really what this sudden uptick in promotion is all about, fueled as it is by the Liberals doubling the province’s advertising budget to $15 million in December.

To be fair, it’s something that political parties of all stripes indulge in, but this time, B.C. auditor general Carol Bellringer suggests the Liberals may have gone too far, advising them last week that a campaign promoting the province’s budget is too political.

It’s a problem without a easy solution, but we agree with Bellringer that it is important for the public to know about programs they can access, but scrutiny of government advertising should increase in the pre-election period.