February 16^th, 2010

(Queen's Park) - In Question Period today, PC Revenue Critic Lisa MacLeod demanded the McGuinty Liberals pay back the $700,000 in public money they spent on partisan ads touting the HST.

Records released as a result of freedom of information requests showed that the McGuinty Liberals paid $700,000 for HST ads to Narrative Advocacy, a firm closely connected to the Liberal-friendly ad firm, Bensimon Byrne.

When in opposition, Dalton McGuinty said he was against spending public money on partisan advertising.  However, Mr. McGuinty has forgotten about that, because the Auditor General had rejected Narrative Advocacy's work, saying the primary objective of their ads was to promote the partisan interests of the McGuinty Liberals.

Quotes:

"It's bad enough that you use tax dollars to use and promote a tax, but you use public money to also promote your own Ontario Liberal Party." --- MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton)

"They wasted taxpayer money. Why do they keep wasting taxpayer dollars that are earned by hard-working Ontario families, so that they can give their friends in the Ontario Liberal Party our tax dollars." --- MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton)

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