By Christina Blizzard - from the Belleville Intelligencer
I think of it as the missing link.
A slide deck sent to me in a sort of electronic brown envelope shows a link between the Liberal campaign team and union political advertising campaigns that have skewered Tories in the past three elections.
Until now, the Liberals have loudly proclaimed that those expensive ad campaigns a variety of unions have put on since the 2003 election have nothing to do with them.
There's no connection to the Liberal Party, they insist.
That's important, because during an election campaign, there are strict rules governing the amount of money the political parties may raise and how much they can spend on advertising.
There aren't the same kinds of spending rules around third-party advertising. That's why unions — mainly under the guise of the Working Families Coalition, but also through teacher unions — have been able to spend millions on TV ads.
But the presentation leaked to me shows that top Liberal campaign organizer — and fellow QMI Agency columnist — Warren Kinsella actually made a presentation to United Association Local 46, a plumbers' union, where he pitched the idea that they should become politically involved.
The 28-page presentation laid out talking points about the record of the Mike Harris and Ernie Eves governments and tied them to Tim Hudak.
The last two slides tell the union members to act: "Not just a lawn sign," it says.
"Contact your local newspaper. Submit letters to the editor. Open line radio shows." It also tells them to get involved with social media.
"Use paid media, such as radio or television ads," says the presentation.
It said, "politically charged campaigns launched by other unions have been successful in the past" — pointing to the controversial Working Families' "Not this time Ernie," campaign of 2003.
When I contacted him Thursday, Kinsella said the union requested the presentation.
"I was asked by the union to come and speak to them before the election about how to avoid a Hudak-PC government. I spoke to about 200 people, and they were introduced to me as members of all of the political parties," he said in an e-mailed response.
"I encouraged them to get involved in the democratic process in any way they could. One way they could do that is to advertise, and to, of course, ensure that they followed all of the Elections Ontario rules.
"To my knowledge, they have done no advertising at all."
Kinsella has posted the deck at his blog (warrenkinsella.com). He accuses me of being "snarky" in my e-mail to him, which makes me sad because I like Kinsella and wouldn't want to offend him.
I thought I was just being business-like. He also said I e-mailed the deck to him, which I didn't. I sent him a description of its contents.
I admire Kinsella enormously. He's a brilliant political strategist and would be the first person I'd call if I were to run for office. The guy's a genius, and Dalton McGuinty's last two election successes are largely due to him.
And trust me, when I get snarky, I get really snarky.
I believe it's wrong for unions — or any other third party — to be allowed to freely advertise during the election writ period because it makes a mockery of election financing laws.
This presentation shows the Liberals have been soliciting unions for support.
Why have election financing laws if Liberal friendly unions can flout them?
'via Blog this'
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