Liberal private member’s bill aims to limit tenor and volume of federal ads

OTTAWA – A Liberal private member’s bill has been tabled in the House of Commons that, if passed, could limit both the partisan tenor and volume of federal government advertising.

Ottawa MP David McGuinty says the legislation is modelled on a decade-old Ontario provincial law that ensures all government ads are vetted by the auditor general’s office to ensure they are non-partisan.

McGuinty says he’s heard from countless Canadians who are tired of the barrage of ads and billboards from the federal Conservative government, particularly the feel-good Economic Action Plan campaign.

And he claims even Conservative MPs have expressed their embarrassment at the pricey advertising, which McGuinty says has already topped well over half a billion dollars since Prime Minister Stephen Harper came to office in 2006.

Harper has defended the action plan ads, saying they have helped boost Canadian economic confidence, but McGuinty says there’s only one word for campaigns that are designed to condition people’s thinking — and that word is “propaganda.”

Although the Conservative government has boasted about the record number of private members’ bills that have become law under its watch, McGuinty’s proposal is well down in the lottery system for bringing such legislation to debate and faces long odds.