Pease in a pod (III)

Gary Kean, The Telegram, February 19, 2005:

Premier defends ad contract

Premier Danny Williams says he takes full responsibility for retaining an advertising firm to stoke the province's pride in the Atlantic Accord deal without publicly tendering the contract.

The premier was reacting to questions posed during a break between cabinet and caucus meetings held in Corner Brook Friday relating to the hiring of M5 Marketing Communications to a reported tune of nearly $200,000.

[…]

Opposition Leader Roger Grimes criticized the premier for hiring a Conservative party-friendly firm and said the ad was nothing more than political propaganda.

"Premier Williams continuously criticized me for advertising campaigns while I was premier," Grimes said. "He stated that he would never undertake political advertising campaigns with taxpayer dollars."

The advertising firm chosen for the Accord work does have Conservative ties - its vice-president was co-chair of the Tories' 2003 election campaign.

[…]

The premier reiterated the ads were not designed to pat his government on the back and called the tendering issue "a minor breach."

"Anybody who tries to paint this as an opportune ad campaign misses the point completely," he said. "What's done is done. All I can say is anything done was done innocently and inadvertently, quite honestly."

Terry Roberts, The Telegram, March 29, 2007

Ad money well spent, Williams says

Premier Danny Williams is defending a decision to spend thousands of taxpayers dollars on an advertising campaign against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the federal Conservatives.

"This is an ad that supports our position for having been wronged by the Government of Canada," Williams said Wednesday.

[…]

The province paid roughly $250,000 to publish full- and half-page advertisements in 16 major newspapers across Canada Wednesday.

Among the publications were The Globe and Mail, the National Post and The Telegram.

Bruce Cheadle, Canadian Press, today:

Government spends more promoting stimulus plan than flu awareness

The Conservative government is spending more than five times as many taxpayer dollars on promoting its economic plan than it is on raising public awareness about the swine flu pandemic.

That is again raising a long-standing question: when does government advertising cross the line into partisan boosterism?

Television viewers may have noticed the latest feel-good government ads about stimulus spending, including the Conservative-friendly, anti-election pitch: "We can't stop now," and "We have to stay on track."

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.