-- CTF Says Liberal Ad is Fair Ball, But Notes that McGuinty and Hampton Haven't Committed to Balanced Budgets and Taxpayer Protection Laws --

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today reacted to an Ontario Liberal Party ad which contains comments attributed to the CTF with respect to Mike Harris and his May 30, 1995 Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

"While it is true that Mr. Harris did not keep his pledge to pass balanced budget and taxpayer protection legislation, at least he acknowledges the need for this type of legislation," said CTF federal director Walter Robinson. "This is more than I can say for Mssrs. McGuinty and Hampton who didn't even sign our Taxpayer Protection pledge in 1995."

"In an election, you can always expect statements from the public domain to be warped to someone's partisan advantage, but I would have expected more from Dalton and a disclosure of why he didn't support our initiative in 1995," Robinson added. "The Liberal ad may convey to voters that we support Mr. McGuinty, I want to make it clear that this is definitely not the case."

The CTF reiterates that it is non-partisan and does not support any political party. "We advocate for our members and we can not hide the fact that we were disappointed that Mr. Harris did not honour his May 30th pledge - and it is very perplexing given the fact that he kept so many of the commitments that were in the Common Sense Revolution campaign document," stressed Robinson.

"Taxpayer protection laws and balanced budget legislation are fundamental to ensure that a future Harris government, or more troubling from what we've seen of the campaign so far, a McGuinty or Hampton-led government can't jack up taxes and erase the benefits we've all seen over the past four years," concluded Robinson.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is a federally incorporated non-partisan and not-for-profit advocacy and research organization In just under ten years the CTF has grown to become Canada' s largest and most effective taxpayer advocacy organization with 80,000 supporters from coast to coast.