New Brunswick Opposition objects to ‘questionable’ ad campaign from provincial government

The New Brunswick Opposition has accused the provincial government of running what they call a “questionable” ad campaign.

The Opposition alleges that the Liberal government is using a taxpayer-funded government video to promote itself on social media.

But the province says they’re simply attempting to inform the public.

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At a cost of just under $600 to produce, the two-minute video begins with a New Brunswick-government logo and from there, outlines a series of achievements.

The video does not include any reference to the Liberal Party or any images of Liberal politicians.

The Opposition Tories claim the Liberals have backtracked on a promise to update electoral legislation and have exploited a loophole.

Saint John Tory MLA Glen Savoie believes the electorate sees through it.

“They see it as the government using their money for their gain and it’s wrong,” said Savoie.

“This government said they would put legislation in place to avoid those kinds of things and you can see they are skirting the rules and doing what they can to get around it.”

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But Elections New Brunswick says the rules were not broken because advertisement time was not purchased, and those seeing the video agreed to receive them on Facebook.

Premier Brian Gallant denies the claim that the video is political and instead says it’s an attempt to better communicate with the public.

He notes the videos were released months ago.

“Now that those adds are still online, we have criticisms because the election is coming in a few months. It’s the same content, exactly the same video so if there was no criticism several months ago, it’s a bit odd they criticize now,” said Gallant.

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Political scientist J.P. Lewis from the University of New Brunswick agrees the rules should be revisited because of social media.

He thinks the messaging may backfire on the Liberals.

“For opposition parties, that might be their message that this just escalates the cynicism of how voters in New Brunswick look at politics when governments may say they’re going to tackle a problem and they still contribute to that problem,” said Lewis.

Meanwhile, Savoie notes the videos make no mention of issues such as the debt, deficit, staggered economic growth or hospital wait times.