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If you live in Ontario, you've encountered Mike Harris on the radio, on TV and in print. It seems like the advertising campaign never stops. You know what these ads are supposed to make you think: something along the lines of "Right on, Mike!" A wiser reaction might be to think, "I can't believe I'm paying for this." Yes, beleaguered taxpayers of Ontario, when Mike Harris launches a self-serving propaganda campaign, it is you who foot the bill. For a group of people who claim to be experts in fiscal management, the Tories sure know how to waste the public's money.

Advertising has been a central element of Tory party strategy since at least 1990. Their 1995 election platform, known as the Common Sense Revolution, was a marketing marvel. They released this simple, slogan-filled document more than a year before the election, and promoted it with a toll-free number. The Conservatives also showed a lot of savvy in their campaign ads, choosing effective images and grabbing good broadcasting slots.

That approach was fine during an election campaign, when the party was paying for its own promotional material. Unfortunately, the Tories have been unable to kick their ad habit since they were elected. One of their first campaigns was in reaction to the "megaweek" mess in 1996. The government released print and TV ads (mostly paid for by taxpayers) praising the revolutionary changes they were wreaking upon the province. Some of the most outrageous ads appeared during the Bill 160 war in 1997. In this case we saw TV ads snidely insinuating that teachers and their "union bosses" were intent on sabotaging education. The government launched its latest tax-funded marketing extravaganza in late 1998. Somebody found $4-million in the budget to pay for this. For weeks Ontario was assaulted by print, radio and TV ads dealing with disparate topics, from education reform to employment programs to compensation for tainted-blood victims. Mike Harris himself starred in a few spots, and, naturally, the government's initiatives were described in glowing terms. The crisis this time? A looming spring election.

In 1997-1998 the Mike Harris government spent upwards of $40-million on advertising. This number is not abnormally large for a government of Ontario. The real issue is not the amount of money spent on ads, but the type of ads on which the public's money is spent. Listen, it's acceptable for a government to provide information or to communicate with the people through advertisements. It's completely unacceptable for a government to use public money for biased, political ad campaigns designed to build support for its own party. Ideally, government communications should be timely and informative, and they should be associated with ministerial bureaucracies, not parties and politicians. In violation of these principles, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (hiding behind "the government") has repeatedly raided the public purse to pay for ads promoting itself.

Although they are careful never to mention the PC Party, government ads contain references to party figures and policies. Instead of being neutral, they put a positive spin on whatever government program they deal with. For instance, Tory government ads

How can ads like that not be partisan?

The Tories sometimes defend their ad campaigns in the name of public consultation, as if a 1-800 number and a response card allow real public involvement in the political process. Do you think the Tories sit down and seriously consider any responses they get? What they want to do is manipulate public opinion, and then gauge it. They do this with the help of the oldest pollster's trick in the book, namely, telling people what to think and then asking them what they think. That way you're almost guaranteed to get the results you want. If the Tories really wanted the public to be involved they'd encourage people to attend public hearings on proposed laws, or to write their MPPs or whatever. Not surprisingly, though, their "empowering" ads hardly ever mention legislation or the legislative process. To the Tories, you're not a citizen, you're a customer.

Mike Harris and his party are determined to insult the people of Ontario. They usually attribute public opposition to their schemes to some kind of marketing failure. They don't try to understand opposing views, and they don't offer to accomodate them, but pledge to work harder at "getting the message across." Then they proceed to spend your money to attack their own enemies and to push their own party's agenda. It's enough to make anybody sick.