Liberals slam government, PC party ads with parallel messages
CBC
The Higgs government is being criticized for producing a taxpayer-funded government video with similar messaging to a new Progressive Conservative pre-election advertisement.
The video, nearly six minutes long, is a detailed explanation of the government's approach to health care reform and lists several initiatives it has taken to reduce surgery wait-times and improve access to primary care.
But it also blames the challenges in the health system on the province's dire fiscal situation before the PCs took office —a fiscal situation that also gets heavy play in the new Tory ad.
"Several years ago our province experienced a financial crisis," says the government video, distributed on its social media platforms.
"The headlines read New Brunswick was on the brink of collapse. Our economy was among the worst performing in Canada."
The video includes an image of a Globe and Mail headline from Sept. 17, 2018, "New Brunswick is in a death spiral."
The 30-second PC video, which attacks Liberal Leader Susan Holt, also includes an image of the same 2018 Globe and Mail headline, though in a different format.
"She was part of the Liberal government that got us into a debt crisis," the voiceover intones.
In the legislature, Holt denounced the government for using public funds on the health care video and its messaging that is parallel to the partisan ad.
Holt suggested both videos were the handiwork of Steve Outhouse, a consultant hired as the PC campaign manager who is also working in the premier's office as Higgs's principal secretary, a taxpayer-funded position.
"The same person is doing the editing," she said.
Premier Blaine Higgs did not respond to the suggestion Outhouse crafted both videos.
"We have a premier that won't even deny that he used political staff and taxpayer dollars to put out campaign material under the government of New Brunswick's brand," Holt said.
"That is completely irresponsible and inappropriate to start campaigning using taxpayer dollars."
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.