-- CTF Urges All MPPs to Support Act to End Partisan Government Advertising --

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today indicated its support for a private member's bill introduced by Opposition Leader Dalton McGuinty.

Mr. McGuinty' introduced An Act to End Partisan Government Advertising this afternoon in the Ontario legislature which sets guidelines and redress measures to govern government advertising.

"This initiative deserves the support of all members in the Ontario legislature," stated CTF federal director Walter Robinson. "For far too long, all three parties have abused taxpayer trust and used tax dollars to fund partisan advertising. The massive ad buy that the government undertook last spring before the provincial election simply continued a sad tradition of pre-election posturing courtesy of public dollars that was also conducted by the Liberals in 1990 and the NDP in 1995."

Robinson also pointed to the timeliness of the introduction of this legislation following hot on the heels of the Auditor General's report last week. Auditor General Erik Peters noted that "we believe it would be in the interest of improving public accountability for the government and/or the legislature as a whole to consider the establishment of principles, guidelines and criteria that clearly define the nature and characteristics of taxpayer-funding advertising."

"Taxpayers are crying out for a sign from this government that it takes the research and recommendations of the Auditor General seriously and passage of the Act to End Partisan Government Advertising would indeed be a very positive signal in this direction," concluded Robinson. "All MPPs should see the merit in supporting Mr. McGuinty's private member's bill."

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is Canada's foremost taxpayer advocacy organization with over 80,000 supporters across Canada. The CTF is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization with offices in Ottawa and four provincial capitals.