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Tax dollars buy us Natalie Portman's perfect little booty?

NEWS RELEASE LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA ****************************** Liberals expose wasteful Conservative advertising OTTAWA – As part of their Waste Wednesday series, Liberals highlighted out-of-control Conservative spending on partisan advertising
HollywoodTuna

NEWS RELEASE

LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA

****************************** Liberals expose wasteful Conservative advertising

OTTAWA – As part of their Waste Wednesday series, Liberals highlighted out-of-control Conservative spending on partisan advertising that has cost taxpayers a record $130 million and has been connected to some highly questionable websites.

“Canadians will be shocked when they learn what their money has bought through the Conservative government’s advertising spending spree,” said Liberal Treasury Board Critic Siobhan Coady.

“To put their wasteful advertising spending in perspective, last year the entire Canadian beer industry spent $97 million on advertising, but our Conservative government still managed to outspend them by $33 million,” said Ms. Coady.

Through an Order Paper question on government advertising practices, Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla found that Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s department spent $549.65 for recruitment ads on hollywoodtuna.com, a website that features pictures of female celebrities in compromising positions [image shown above is from a Natalie Portman film trailer that was the site's lead story as of 12:30 p.m. today].

Ms. Dhalla also discovered that Heritage Minister James Moore’s department spent tax dollars to advertise the National Film Board when someone searches for photoforum.ru – a Russian website that maintains an extensive section of what they call “erotic nude” photos.

“The Conservatives are also paying for Google Adwords, so that whenever someone searches for the sexy female leads in the James Bond movies, for example, a government ad pops up,” said Ms. Dhalla. “Who in their right mind thinks that taxpayers would approve of government advertising on websites that objectify women?”

Liberal Associate Finance Critic Alexandra Mendès said that the Conservatives used advertising to create a misleading impression that they were creating jobs. 

In fact, only 25 percent of the government’s signature $2-billion infrastructure fund went out the door in the first year at the height of the recession, when unemployment was highest. 

For the $200-million green infrastructure fund, it’s even worse – only 3 percent was spent.

“Despite the fact that not nearly as many jobs were created as the government promised, that didn’t stop them from spending $50 million on advertising and an estimated $27 million on signs to promote the Economic Action Plan,” said Ms. Mendès.

Ms. Mendès said that the Conservative government is deliberately trying to blur the lines between the Government of Canada and the Conservative Party.

To prevent these abuses, a future Liberal government would ban all taxpayer-funded politicized government advertising and close loopholes in the existing federal Communications Policy.

“Liberals will assign an independent body to ensure all government advertising is free of political content,” said Ms. Mendès. “Government advertising should promote the health and welfare of our citizens. Yet all too often, the Conservative Party’s partisan message is front and centre in taxpayer-funded advertising – and it’s got to stop.”

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