VICTORIA: The BC division of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today called on the government, again, to end partisan pre-election advertising with taxpayer dollars. In NDP pre-election documents leaked today, the NDP campaign strategy aimed to highlight "new budget-making for BC" with a supportive "marketing campaign" in early October.

"The governing party has been caught with their hand in the taxpayer cookie jar," said CTF-BC director Mark Milke. "The plan to 'roll out' feel good ads in October about budget planning is a transparent scheme to use tax money for partisan purposes. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh owes taxpayers an explanation, and a promise that government ads will now be suspended except for critical information - a definition that does not include feel-good ads."

Milke noted that the Auditor General has specifically called for limits on government advertising close to election campaigns, and should only occur if the information is clearly "commercial" or is "essential community information."