Who approved that message? Outside attack ads proliferate in Toronto election

Third-party ads allow the candidates to benefit from the attacks while retaining the ability to plausibly deny they have gone negative

Thestar.com
April 8, 2014
By Daniel Dale

On Thursday, Olivia Chow's mayoral campaign sent out a news release that listed John Tory’s supposed ethical transgressions.

On Friday, a slick anti-Tory attack advertisement appeared on YouTube. It neatly parroted Chow’s talking points. But it wasn’t identified as a Chow ad.

Or as anybody else’s ad.

The 60-second video, uploaded by somebody called “mentelli,” did not identify its creator, even in tiny print. Chow spokesman Jamey Heath acknowledged that the campaign got to watch it before it was released - but said it was made by “someone supportive” of the campaign, not the campaign itself.

“What we’ve said about him isn’t a state secret. So there are people friendly to our campaign who reinforce what we’re saying,” Heath said.

U.S. elections are awash in attack ads from outside groups known as super PACs. Toronto has not yet experienced any such flood. But third-party ads are proliferating in these early days as the campaigns themselves conserve resources for the fall sprint to the finish.

For the candidates these ads promote, they are better than campaign-produced ads in important ways.

They don’t count against the tight spending limit of $1.3 million per candidate. They allow supporters to effectively circumvent the $2,500 cap for campaign donations by contributing far more in services. And, crucially, they allow the candidates to simultaneously benefit from the attacks while retaining the ability to plausibly deny they have gone negative.

The outside ads, most of them online, have so far outnumbered ads from the campaigns proper. Most have either targeted Ford or supported Chow.

Satirical anti-Ford signs from an entity called “No Ford Nation” appeared last week in a downtown park. Television director Ron Murphy made a widely shared satirical web ad in which a child offers up excuses pioneered by Ford. An anonymous YouTube account called “TOVideo” posted a professional-looking, Pac-Man-themed pro-Chow video.

And in the campaign’s first month, before Chow and Tory registered, TOVideo uploaded a polished ad that criticized “Rob Ford’s broken promises.” Five days later, another anonymous account, “Fantasterrifical,” popped up to share an artistic attack ad in which damaging Ford quotes were superimposed on city buildings.

Super PACs are often closely connected to the campaigns they are backing, though they are not allowed to communicate with them. It is not clear how directly the people who made the anti-Tory video and pro-Chow Pac-Man video are tied to the Chow campaign.

Tory’s campaign believes the anti-Tory ad came from Chow’s camp itself - possibly from Chow operative Warren Kinsella. Kinsella, a renowned hardball player who runs a political consulting firm, would not answer directly when asked if he was involved in any way.

“XXXXX did it,” he said, an apparent joke about an incomplete Tory press release. He added: “XXXXX marks the spot! Or, the quote in this case.”

U.S. watchdogs have decried the anonymity granted to super PACs, which can launch attacks without saying who is funding them. In Toronto, even the campaigns themselves can advertise anonymously if they choose.
A U.S. law passed in 2002 requires candidates to personally declare that they “approve this message.” The Canada Elections Act requires federal campaign ads to say that they are “authorized by the official agent” of the candidate or party.

There are no similar disclosure rules governing Ontario mayoral elections.

“The Municipal Elections Act is silent with respect to campaign advertisement requirements,” said the city’s elections director, Bonita Pietrangelo.

Heath said Chow will record the market value of the anti-Tory video as a campaign donation. Campaigns traditionally release their donor lists shortly before voting day, meaning it will be six months, at least, until the public learns anything about who paid for that message.