Activist fights Liberals’ $15m ad tsunami

Paul Doroshenko, the crusading Vancouver lawyer suing the government for wasting taxpayers’ money on partisan pre-election ads, wasn’t always this ticked off at the B.C. Liberals. In fact, he was once a B.C. Liberal. “I was a volunteer for the Liberals in many elections,” Doroshenko told me Monday, during a break from preparing his lawsuit against the government.

“And the reason I worked for the Liberals was because I was so angry about all the advertising the NDP was doing.”

That would be the previous NDP government that spent millions of dollars on highly partisan “public information” advertising back in the 1990s.

The Liberals — then in opposition — were furious about the NDP ads, too, and promised to stop it. But Premier Christy Clark’s Liberals are now saturating the Internet and TV airwaves with their own partisan ads as the May election looms.

“It’s so brazen,” Doroshenko said of the government’s $15-million ad tsunami, much of which brags about the B.C. economy and Clark’s record on job creation.

“Somebody has got to do something about it — if only to call the public’s attention to what’s going on.”

The public is responding, judging by the $11,365 raised so far on the Go Fund Me website page Doroshenko set up. The money will finance a class-action lawsuit that asks a judge to order an immediate stop to the ad blitz.

“After that, we’d also be seeking to have the Liberal party pay that money back to taxpayers,” he said. “It’s money that would be better spent on health care or education or legal aid.”

The government, of course, will argue the ads contain important public information and have nothing to do with the May 9 election.

“We’re not ashamed,” said Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson, the government’s point man on the ad campaign

“The government has worked with the office of the auditor general to ensure all information campaigns fulfil clear criteria.”

He said that criteria includes a requirement that all ads are “factbased” and inform the public about important programs and priorities.

But if you think that means the current ads have been approved by the auditor general — the legislature’s independent watchdog on public spending — think again.

“The way that was worded left me with the impression that we had actually looked at ads. We have not,” said Auditor General Carol Bellringer, warning that government ads “attached to a political party” would not be appropriate.

“Are they getting close to that line? Possibly in some of them,” Bellringer said, though she said her office is not planning an audit of the ad campaign.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can uncover that other people can’t see for themselves.”

Doroshenko hopes a judge will see the ads for what they are: Partisan pre-election pitches for the B.C. Liberal Party, paid for by you.