The main bureaucrat of Ontario is admonishing the leader of the PC, Doug Ford, and his staff for allegedly trying to use his Washington DC trip last week to obtain the advantage of the game in the electoral campaign.
Ford went to Washington with a two-day anti-tariff impulse, the first of the two trips to the capital of the United States during the campaign. Ontario taxpayers covered the costs of meetings and events on the field, while the PC Party paid the travel costs for Ford and the campaign workers that accompanied him.
The head of the Public Service of Ontario, Michelle Diemanuele, ordered the main political advisor of Ford to use the video of the trip as campaign material, and says that the Ford government office erroneously designated two workers of PC Party campaigns in The trip, according to an email. Obtained by CBC News.
Last Friday, Ford social media accounts published a video with images of the Washington trip, including closed doors meetings with US commercial and politicians. The video concluded with the PC Party logo and the slogan of the “Protect Ontario” campaign.
Later that day, Ford publications were eliminated and the video was published again without the party brand.
A PC spokesman said at that time that the logo and slogan were eliminated “from great caution.” However, Diemanuele’s email throws doubts about that explanation and presents a different version of the events.
The leader of the PC, Doug Ford, made his electoral campaign tour of Ontario to Washington, DC, on Tuesday to present the Ontario case against US tariffs, while the other leaders of the important parties continued campaigning throughout the entire province. Mike Crawley from CBC breaks down the details.
“When I realized that the video was pos The mission is not used for campaign purposes. ” Diemanuele says in an email sent on Thursday to John Fraser, a liberal candidate and MPP for a long time.
The Liberal Ontario Party provided CBC News with a copy of the email, which was an answer to a Quoter complaint last week.
The assistance of the campaign workers ‘should have been marked’
In the email, Diemanuele says that he has asked the chief of Ford Cabinet, Patrick Sackville, to consult with the Ontario Integrity Commissioner on “the appropriate use of video images and photographic images of the prime minister and the ministers on the Government business during the electoral period. ”
As the main bureaucrat of the province, also known as the Secretary of the Cabinet, Diemanuele plays a role to ensure that Ford and his cabinet ministers do not use government resources for partisan purposes. The integrity commissioner, J. David Wake, provides MPPS advice on ethics and conflict of interest and can investigate the complaints made by MPPS.
The email also says that the prime minister’s office, which continues to work during the electoral period, listed the two PC campaign workers who collected Ford videos and photos as provincial government staff, but did not tell Diemanuele.
“Your assistance should have been marked internally and evaluated more as part of the electoral period protocol,” she says.
Both Diemanuele and Wake gave Ford the green light to go to Washington after determining the qualified trip as urgent government matters. Both the liberals and the NDP have asked the integrity commissioner to check if the aspects of the Ford trip crossed any ethical line.
When asked to respond to the concerns raised in the Email of Renanule, the spokeswoman for the PC campaign, Grace Lee, provided a statement to CBC News.
“I help and loose with the rules,” say the liberals of Ontario
“Like the prime minister and other prime ministers, the prime minister is always accompanied by a photographer and cameraman,” Lee said. “Due to a great precaution and respect for taxpayers, the party paid the travel and accommodation expenses for the personnel currently involved in the campaign that traveled with him to Washington.”
A spokesman for the liberal campaign says Ford “plays fast and loose with the rules.”
The progressive conservative leader, Doug Ford, said the province will build a tunnel under the 401 highway if it is re -elected. But as the LANE Harrison of CBC explains, an expert says that it could be the most expensive ontarium promise in the last ten years.
“You can’t trust a word that says,” said Ontario Liberal press secretary, Bahoz Dara Aziz, in an email on Friday to CBC News. “It has zero respect for Ontario taxpayers, and even less for the rules and conventions of our democracy.”
Fraser had complained to the head of the public service that Ford’s Washington’s trip was “an important and coordinated effort of the progressive conservative party to take advantage of government resources to give an unfair advantage in this election.”
Diemanuele’s response rules out some of Fraser’s complaints, including concerns about the participation of Ontario public servants on Washington’s trip.
“The electoral period committee provided the support provided by the public servants of Ontario to the Washington mission and was consistent with the organizational and logistical public support provided by public servants on government missions,” says Diemanuele in the Charter.
