I was amazed to read MP Dan Albas’ spirited defense of his government’s profligate spending on advertising. Mr. Albas claims the government needs to inform Canadians about new programs and benefits.
I wonder if he’s referring to the $2.5 million Conservative ad campaign for a “program” that doesn’t exist? The Canada Jobs Grant was never rolled out because the provinces hated it. But that didn’t stop the Conservatives from running the ads anyway. And it gets better, those ads were declared misleading by Advertising Standards Canada.
And, how about the $113 million (and counting) spent on those Economic Action Plan ads? The ones that talk about “safe and responsible resource development.”
That means expansion of the Oil Sands. And how about “opening up trade?” That means signing so called free trade deals with human rights abusers like China ,giving them the right to sue us if they don’t like our feeble environmental protection rules.
A Liberal government would spend that $100 million Conservative ad budget on actually making life better for Canadians instead of promoting Steven Harper’s fantasies at taxpayers expense. P.S. — Here’s a fun fact from Statistics Canada: In 2013 (the latest year available) 46 per cent of the people living in Penticton made less than $25,000 a year.
Bob Nicholson
Penticton