Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the $25,000 price tag for his Lake Ontario sign was public money well worth spending because of the promotional benefits it brought.
Last week, Ford travelled to Winona, Ont., to unveil a giant blue sign that reads “Lake Ontario now and always” in both English and French.
The sign was a response to U.S. President Donald Trump, who issued an executive order renaming the body of water “Lake America” as part of his trade war with Canada.
The premier’s office said it cost the public roughly $25,000 to print the sign.
Speaking at an unrelated event that was closed to the media on Thursday, Ford said he’d received messages from the public about the sign.
“I got more comments about that beautiful sign that we put up,” he said. “I can’t remember what it cost, I think it was $25,000, but I responded to one person.”
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The premier said the sign was worth the money because of how it travelled around the world, being picked up by news outlets in the United States and further afield.
“The return on investment on that — where do you get $25 million of free advertising all throughout the U.S., all throughout Canada?
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“I’ll take that ROI all day on $25,000.”
While Ford’s Lake Ontario sign has garnered international news coverage, the premier’s political critics questioned whether his approach — from the insults to a series of interviews on U.S. television networks — was helping the overall negotiations.
“I just think we’re giving President Trump what he wants,” said interim Liberal Leader John Fraser.
“These are serious times; it’s a trade war. You need a plan, you need a strategy. We don’t need to be talking to Americans on American television. If the premier wants to be talking to people, he should be talking to Ontarians about what his plan is to protect Ontarians.”
What buddy of yours profited $23,000 from that?
Because he is stupid.
25k for a sign… because orange man said it is called something else. I can’t believe this is actually happening. How come the only Adult in the room is Danielle Smith.
Art class paints it for cost of materials, shop class erects it for cost of materials, English class corrects misspelled lake name to America for free.
“ROUGHLY” $25k to “PRINT” the sign.
In government language that means it was more.
But that was just to print it.Then you have to fabricate a billboard, and pay a crew of city workers to attend the erection ,city engineers to approve the installation, likely an archeologist to make sure there are no F.N. artifacts present, a camera crew to take various photos for virtue signaling and the wages of politicians plus the perks for the conception of it all to begin with.
Total cost is probably close to a quarter million when you translate it into real world statistics.
Then pay for it yourself.
Our own little Trump.
25 g for a sign something isnt adding up. reacting is a weak thing to do canaduh is a weak country
Ford is an idiot. 25 grand for a sign! He is a joke!
I’m in the Billboard business. I could have produced and installed the banner for less than $1400.00 What a bloody joke!
Wow, paid way too much! Stupid people do stupid things. And clearly people of Ontario have no brains either.
25 grand for that sign ? Somebody got hosed.
Waste of money and just theatre by Lard Ford.
$25K is a bargain. The LPC would’ve gladly paid $100MM tax dollars for that billboard.
WHAT A F/ G WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY !!!