Ford’s Tories using taxpayer dollars to produce ‘lookalike news’ videos promoting party message, opposition says

Thestar.com
July 31, 2018
Rob Ferguson

What looks like a TV news clip hit the “Ford Nation” Facebook page this week, with Premier Doug Ford arguing it’s important to shrink Toronto’s city council when “people are sleeping on the streets because too much money goes to politicians.”

Opposition parties charge the video is one of a series of television-style news items by the new Progressive Conservative government’s taxpayer-funded caucus services office that amount to partisan advertising at public expense.

“We all complained about the previous Liberal government using taxpayer dollars to do essentially partisan advertising,” Green party Leader Mike Schreiner, the MPP for Guelph, said Tuesday.

“It’s the height of hypocrisy for the Conservatives to do the exact same thing now but take it to another level and put it on steroids.”

According to rules introduced by the previous Liberal government, an ad is partisan if it uses an MPP’s picture, name or voice, the colour or logo associated with the political party, or direct criticism of a party or member of the legislature.

During the spring election campaign, the “reporter” delivering items from the road on the PC party’s budget was former broadcast journalist and current Ford staffer Lyndsey Vanstone, who did “standups,” talking to the camera like a real TV reporter. She is playing the same role now on the public payroll.

One of her reports this week summed up Ford’s first month in office in a flattering and promotional tone, starting with the line: “Since his inauguration on June 29, Premier Ford has been off to the races.”

Above a banner reading “Ontario News Now,” the item pictured Ford at a horse race before breezily mentioning meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Toronto Mayor John Tory. It showed him shaking hands with police college grads and meeting with firefighters, along with a clip of Ford talking about scrapping the cap-and-trade system and forcing York University strikers back to work.

The Conservatives insist they are doing nothing wrong, while NDP Leader Andrea Horwath accused them of “trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes” with “lookalike news.”

“We’re using technologies available to us to communicate with the people,” said Jeff Silverstein, director of communications for PC Caucus Services.

“Platforms such as Facebook provide us with the opportunity to communicate directly with people from all corners of Ontario. The videos that are produced and paid for exclusively by the PCCS (PC Caucus Services) are not part of government social media. These videos are not shared on ministry or government social media channels.”

It’s appalling that Ford’s government is doing this while insisting it is a better steward of hard-earned tax dollars, said Horwath, who has repeatedly clashed with the new premier in the legislature’s daily question period since the house returned for a rare summer session.

“King Ford might think differently, but the bottom line is we do have rules against that … If you respect the taxpayer, if you respect the tax dollar, you have to respect the fact that you shouldn’t use the public’s money to advertise or to promote partisan materials,” she said.

Liberal interim leader John Fraser said provincial auditor general Bonnie Lysyk should be investigating the TV-style reports, which use a Tory blue background to highlight blocks of white text getting the PC message across, and questioned whether Ford’s team plans to use them to bypass the Queen’s Park media.

“They’re just starting right now. Is it going to become fake news?” he said in an interview, noting the reports were a fixture of the election campaign, when journalists were frustrated at limited access to Ford, who would take only four or five questions at policy pronouncements.

“We saw that in the campaign, that they basically put a cocoon around the premier and then started only talking to their own people, not answering very many questions from the media.”

“Videos produced by government, such as the premier’s visit to the Britt (forest fire) Command Centre, are shared on government websites. After they are posted on government social media channels, anyone is able to share the content on other platforms,” said Silverstein.

Liberal MPP Marie-France Lalonde said it appears the Conservatives think they are still on the hustings.

“The campaign continues.”