Sending government ads to an advertising commissioner

A Liberal MP proposes an answer to complaints about government ads

<p>David McGuinty fields questions at the Liberal Party convention in Ottawa on Saturday, January 14, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle</p>

David McGuinty fields questions at the Liberal Party convention in Ottawa on Saturday, January 14, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

Liberal MP David McGuinty has tabled a private member’s bill that would amend the Auditor General Act to appoint an advertising commissioner.

The proposal seems similar to what was done in Ontario in 2004, when the government of Mr. McGuinty’s brother passed legislation that put government advertising under the purview of the province’s auditor general.

The BC New Democrats had promised to implement something modelled on the Ontario system had they formed government after the province’s election.