Wouldn't you agree? Is this a legitimate expectation we should have?

Once upon a time a popular opposition firebrand named Christy Clark, stood up in the BC Legislature, to rip the NDP government for spending tax dollars on shameless, self-promoting advertising. 

“People don't want the government to spend 700 grand of their money so they can find out how to access services; people want this government to spend their money so that those services are there for them to access. That's what British Columbians want,” Clark railed. “How many firefighters, how many police officers will not be on the street because [the Finance Minister] is spending… on her advertising campaign?” 

The above is from an opinion / editorial piece by BC Taxpayers Federation Director Jordan Bateman (November 2012) entitled, "Government Ads Use and Abuse Taxpayers’ Money".  

For month prior to the May 14th provincial election campaign, the BC Liberals took hits from all quarters, on this clearly wasteful and partisan adverting campaign.  

Sadly, during the four week election campaign, it was all but forgotten ... even by former radio co-worker Bill Good who on November 16th, over the airwaves of CKNW had stated:  "Those are very partisan ads. They should be bought and paid for by the Liberal Party of BC." 

The election is of course ended a week ago, but perhaps the major political commentators such as Keith Baldrey, Vaughn Palmer,  Bill Tieleman, Michael Smyth, etc, will now ask this question which I now pose: 

"Will the Premier comment to ending this kind of self-promotion and stick to truly informative ads providing BC residents with 'needed' information?"  

I believe if she does this, it really will help to put her on a more solid footing with a large number of British Columbians who still sit in two distinct camps; those who didn't vote for her ( over 55%) ... and those who again for a number of reasons(including a belief it doesn't make any difference) didn't cast a vote at all (approximately 48%).  

By the way, this is equally a fair question to ask of Adrian Dix and the NDP, as he himself had also pushed for a ban on partisan information being presented in government advertising being paid for by taxpayers, and had indicated that if elected he would put forward legislation to stop this from happening again.

So I put the question forward to both leaders then; are you against partisan political advertising which is paid for by taxpayers, and will you put forward legislation / support legislation, that would see this in place and enforced?

It's fair question to ask this, and the taxpayers of BC should have every right to know the answer ... wouldn't you agree? 

Is this a legitimate expectation we should have of government?

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.  The floor is now being turned over to you ... and I welcome your thoughts on this.