he governing Conservatives are using taxpayer-funded ads to gain a political advantage in anticipation of a fall election, and the federal government's $34-million advertising campaign for its Economic Action Plan would be in violation of Ontario's Government Advertising Act, says a leading government advertising expert.
Quote:
All the ads direct viewers to a Tory-blue government website that includes more than 40 different photos of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and refers repeatedly to “the Harper government” — apparently in direct contravention of Treasury Board communications policy.
After this starting hitting the news networks and talkshows yesterday the site now only has removed most of the Harper photos basically admitting guilt in my eyes.
But the ads still use "the Harper government" and this is the thing that bugs me the most, the GOVERNMENT website links to all of Harpers partisan social media links.
I don't really care about the comparison of the difference in funds for the 2 ad campaigns, the real issue is the partisan nature of the economic ads. Today on CTV Power Play Martha Hall Findlay very clearly explained this and the Conservative MP failed miserably at answering any questions, just blabbed away off-topic about H1N1. http://watch.ctv.ca/news/power-play/sept-21/#clip215705
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poquas
Forum Super Elite
Posts: 2334
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:12 pm
Of course my first question is would you expect anything else from them at this point?
From the first time elected, the Conservatives have been in perpetual election mode. From the “attack ads” to the “action plan” is just more of the same.
I keep hoping they’ll figure it out and do their jobs, but no, it never reached the sublime and is doing a death dive to the ridiculous.
I gave up.
OnTheIce
CKA Elite
Posts: 4521
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:38 pm
While I completely understand that spending government money on partisan ads is unacceptable, why is it unacceptable to have the leader of this Country on the site?
Afterall, these are pictures of him with Canadians. Should we just grab random photos of people from Shutterstock?
The site should be cleaned up if it's against any rules, but I think we need to draw the line a bit on what we should expect to see. Seeing my Prime Minister on a website about our economy and his governments action plan doesn't seem out of the ordinary for me.
poquas
Forum Super Elite
Posts: 2334
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:14 pm
OnTheIce wrote:
The site should be cleaned up if it's against any rules, but I think we need to draw the line a bit on what we should expect to see. Seeing my Prime Minister on a website about our economy and his governments action plan doesn't seem out of the ordinary for me.
I have to ask the obvious.
If Ignatieff was PM and the Liberals were the government you honestly wouldn't object to this for its partisan duplicity?
KorbenDeck
Forum Elite
Posts: 1696
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:23 pm
Quote:
Tories spend 5 times more on economy ads than H1N1 ads
Because people care more about the economy than H1N1, because everyone could see and feel the effects of the economy. Where as the H1N1 is just another strain of the flu sure people are worried about the flu, but that worried is overshadowed when you are worried about losing your home and the ability to feed yourself.
What kind of ads would they have for the H1N1? "While millions of people have lost their jobs, homes and savings, we have been focusing on the more important matter the H1N1. Instead of seeing Canada threw hard times, we have been waiting by the fax machine for the reply from the lab to make sure that they are still going to deliver the vaccine in time for the holidays."
OldChum
Forum Elite
Posts: 1096
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:27 pm
If Ignatieff was PM and the Liberals were the government you honestly wouldn't object to this for its partisan duplicity?
Yes I would if no one else, use their party coffers to blow their own horn not my money . 34 Mill to what make every one think the goverment is you. Sad Stephy
Canadaka
Site Admin
Posts: 9748
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:52 pm
OnTheIce wrote:
While I completely understand that spending government money on partisan ads is unacceptable, why is it unacceptable to have the leader of this Country on the site?
Afterall, these are pictures of him with Canadians. Should we just grab random photos of people from Shutterstock?
The site should be cleaned up if it's against any rules, but I think we need to draw the line a bit on what we should expect to see. Seeing my Prime Minister on a website about our economy and his governments action plan doesn't seem out of the ordinary for me.
Having some photos of the PM is certainly fine, but every single photo on the front-page had Harper prominent and the site was full of others. They are mostly removed now, too me that just shows they know they were going over the line.
But that maybe debatable, i think the bigger problem is the promotion of partisan social media links and the use of "Harper Government" in advertisements, probably breaks elections Canada laws.
poquas
Forum Super Elite
Posts: 2334
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:57 pm
Canadaka wrote:
But that maybe debatable, i think the bigger problem is the promotion of partisan social media links and the use of "Harper Government" in advertisements, probably breaks elections Canada laws.
Stevie will just change the law, or file a lawsuit against the Elections commission for defaming him. Law and Harper don't seem to have met yet. We could always ask Donna Cadman.
OnTheIce
CKA Elite
Posts: 4521
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:19 pm
Canadaka wrote:
OnTheIce wrote:
While I completely understand that spending government money on partisan ads is unacceptable, why is it unacceptable to have the leader of this Country on the site?
Afterall, these are pictures of him with Canadians. Should we just grab random photos of people from Shutterstock?
The site should be cleaned up if it's against any rules, but I think we need to draw the line a bit on what we should expect to see. Seeing my Prime Minister on a website about our economy and his governments action plan doesn't seem out of the ordinary for me.
Having some photos of the PM is certainly fine, but every single photo on the front-page had Harper prominent and the site was full of others. They are mostly removed now, too me that just shows they know they were going over the line.
But that maybe debatable, i think the bigger problem is the promotion of partisan social media links and the use of "Harper Government" in advertisements, probably breaks elections Canada laws.
I know you may not like it as a Liberal supporter, but if that page was filled with the likes of a Liberal PM, you wouldn't be speaking about it as you are today.
Let's say Ignatieff wins the election and he takes the reigns of the "action plan", and calls it whatever he wants, you and I fully expect him, as he would be our leader and Prime Minister, to be front and centre on a site about our Government and our economy.
OnTheIce
CKA Elite
Posts: 4521
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:16 pm
Some news today, Canadaka.
As you know, your website here at CKA changes frequently. The home page changes as new articles are posted so you, of all people, understand how these sites work when new content is added.
The site changed because that’s what sites do over time. Content was not removed, it is still available on the government’s server. In fact, all of the non-removed Action Plan news releases (with pictures) can be viewed here.
You can judge for yourself: Here is Economic Action plan as it appears today http://actionplan.gc.ca/
Canadian Press reporter Bruce Cheadle has falsely reported that photographs of the Prime Minister have been removed from www.actionplan.gc.ca .
These reports are not true. Here are the facts:
* No photographs of the Prime Minister have been removed from the Action Plan website;
* Canadians have a right to know where and how the Government’s stimulus is being spent, and the Action Plan website helps provide this accountability;
* In addition, the website contains important information for Canadians on certain stimulus measures like the Home Renovation Tax Credit that are only available for a limited time.
that's fine, I said the photos were not the main issue, shady at best.
The main issue is with using "Harper Government" in tax-payer funded advertising and with the partisan social media links.
I have no problem with the website itself. I can somewhat question spending 36million on an ad campaign, but that's another issue.
Beej
Junior Member
Posts: 61
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:08 pm
The Conservatives should use these as their normal ads and drop the attack ads. Attack ads turn me off of the party putting them out.
DerbyX
CKA Uber
Posts: 20757
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:32 pm
OnTheIce wrote:
Some news today, Canadaka.
As you know, your website here at CKA changes frequently. The home page changes as new articles are posted so you, of all people, understand how these sites work when new content is added.
The site changed because that’s what sites do over time. Content was not removed, it is still available on the government’s server. In fact, all of the non-removed Action Plan news releases (with pictures) can be viewed here.
You can judge for yourself: Here is Economic Action plan as it appears today http://actionplan.gc.ca/
Canadian Press reporter Bruce Cheadle has falsely reported that photographs of the Prime Minister have been removed from http://www.actionplan.gc.ca .
These reports are not true. Here are the facts:
* No photographs of the Prime Minister have been removed from the Action Plan website;
* Canadians have a right to know where and how the Government’s stimulus is being spent, and the Action Plan website helps provide this accountability;
* In addition, the website contains important information for Canadians on certain stimulus measures like the Home Renovation Tax Credit that are only available for a limited time.
This is Google's cache of http://www.plandaction.gc.ca/eng/index.asp. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 23 Sep 2009 05:19:12 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime.
Quote:
Anyone who has seen the action plan websites in the last few months (there have been two versions, the old one above and the newer one being Conservative bold blue) has been given the overwhelming impression that it's all about Stephen Harper. The 40 photos emphasized him to such an extent it was hard to view it as anything but a promotional site for the Harper Conservatives. Minimizing the story by framing it as a natural change that all websites go through by referring us to the September 16th version of the site is not a relevant response to the main point. As Conservatives well know, CP was poking around on the story early last week and had submitted written questions to the Privy Council Office. "Repeated inquiries over more than a week to the Privy Council Office,"writes CP. Do we suppose the PCO tipped off the site masters that media were asking about the 40 photos of Mr. Harper? Pretty good bet. And down the photos came in embarrassment. The pictures would still be there had CP not started asking questions and framing it in contrast to the H1N1 spending.
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