Ontario undoes the right thing
On Tuesday, in an editorial criticizing federal spending on partisan advertising, we noted that Ontario is the only jurisdiction in the country with legislation that effectively guards against the use of tax dollars to put out selfserving political messages.
We spoke too soon. On Wednesday Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk warned that proposed amendments to the Government Advertising Act would “gut” the legislation and turn her office into a rubber stamp for partisan promotional efforts.
Under the existing provisions of the act, Lysyk has final say on what counts as “partisan,” giving her broad leeway to reject messages that seek to promote the governing party rather than just convey information to Ontarians. The changes, which the government maintains would “clarify” the act, would significantly restrict that ability by stipulating that an item is only partisan if it specifically identifies a government member, or carries the name or logo of the party (or a colour clearly associated with the party).
The change, says Lysyk, “creates a lot more opportunity for the government to tell us what to do.” If an ad met the new, more restrictive standards, she would have no choice but to approve it, even if she felt it was blatantly partisan. That in turn nullifies the whole point of submitting the ads to her office. “If you take the discretion away from our office … it might as well be a government ministry doing the work.”
Lysyk said her office uses broader criteria for assessing partisanship, including tone, timing, merits and truthfulness. Even at that it rarely re- jects an ad: the sole example in Lysyk’s 18 months was an advertisement claiming manufacturing is “booming” in Ontario, when in fact factories have been closing or moving away.
Deputy Premier Deb Matthews said the change was needed because the act, which has been in place since 2004, “is not working that well” and contained too much “subjectivity” that “made it very difficult for us to put ads on the air.”
That is transparently untrue. Of 7,200 ads worth $400 million, only one per cent have been rejected, says Lysyk. If Premier Kathleen Wynne has been having problems getting her message out, it must come as a surprise to the voters who gave her a majority government less than a year ago. Lysyk can’t say why the Liberals would move now to alter legislation that has been operating successfully for a decade, but the reason is obvious: they want the opportunity to blow their own horn on the taxpayer dime, just as other provinces and the federal government habitually do. The act was introduced in the first place because Liberals claimed the previous government abused the public purse to promote itself. Now it hopes to avail itself of the same opportunity.
Lysyk says if the changes remain, she will ask the government to remove her responsibility for reviewing future ads, to avoid her office being compromised. We heartily recommend she do so. Wynne may wish to turn the airwaves into a cheering section for her government, but there’s no reason the auditor general should be forced to apply a false stamp of approval to what is clearly a self-serving change.