5 months before Manitoba's election, attack ad campaigns are already underway

If you can't wait for this fall's provincial election, you're in luck: Manitoba's two most popular political parties are already taking aim at each other in attack ads.

In one pre-election ad,the governing Progressive Conservatives accusethe OppositionNew Democratic Partyof planning to raise the provincial sales tax by three percentage points.

In another ad, the NDP claims the PCs fired Manitoba nurses.

Both of these claims, you may be shocked to learn,can not be described as accurate.

The PCs cannot cite a single source as the basis for their allegation, while the NDP are repeating a murky 2019 election campaign claim debunked by CBC News four years ago.

The PCs' line of attack was first unveiled on April 15, when Premier Heather Stefanson told members of her party NDP Leader Wab Kinew will follow in his predecessor Greg Selinger's footsteps and raise the PST.

"Now I hear they're even looking at a 10 per centPST. Can you believe that? Could you imagine what will happen to our province if that, if that goes through?" Stefansonsaid during an address to Progressive Conservative party members.

When pressed by reporters about where precisely she heard about this three-percentage-point hike,Stefanson could not identify a source. The PCs nonetheless proceeded to use that claim in an attack ad that started running on the radio earlier this week.

"The NDP will hike the PST to 10 per cent ifelected this time," the ad warns."That's what happens when the NDP promisethe moon but only have one pocket to reach into and that's yours."

Pressed further about the source of the three percentage point PST hike, Stefanson's communications directorsuggestedthe jump is inevitable.

"Past behaviour is the best predictor of future action," Braeden Jones said Thursday in a statement.

"The premier has heard this fear of steep NDP PST tax hikes everywhere, in amounts even greater than 10 per cent, especially from Manitobans who remember the Selinger PST hike after he promised not to."

When pressed, Jones could not cite a source for the three per cent PST hike his party says the NDP has planned.

'I'm not making anything up': Stefanson

That task was left to Stefanson, who told reporters the claim is actually not based on anything she heard, as she previously stated, but ratheras a byproduct of costing out NDP promises to date.

"They have no plan to grow the economy. The only way they're going to pay for it is by increasing taxes," Stefansontold reporters Friday at the Victoria Inn in Winnipeg.

"I'm not making anything up," the premier continued, suggesting theNDP'spromises to date would require a Kinew government to raise the PST by three percentage points.

"Yes, based on on some of the promises they've made so far," she said after a reporter asked whether the claim was based on a calculation.

The NDP has responded to the campaign by accusing the PCs of spinning a yarn.

"The PCs' only campaign tactic will be bald-faced lies to the public," NDP finance critic Adrien Sala said in a statement.

"Manitobans are smart. They know the government's record and they see how little credibility Premier Stefanson has left."

The NDP, however, is running an attack ad that repeats a claim from the 2019 provincial election campaign.

"The PCs have fired nurses and caused chaos for front-line staff," the ad claims, regurgitating a claim Manitoba shed 500 nurses during former premier Brian Pallister's first term in office.

That claim was based on data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information. Those numbers, CIHI warned in 2019, should be used "with caution" because employment status is voluntarily reported by nurses and nurse practitioners.

Manitoba's Liberals, meanwhile, raised the red party flag about both of the attack ads, calling them inappropriate and wondering whois paying for the ads and wondering whether taxpayer money is being misspent.

"These attack ads are designed to manipulate voters, to stop them from thinking, and to vote through disgust, anger, fear and hate, and it has got to be reined in," Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said in a statement on Friday.

"Make no mistake, if that's how political parties campaign, that's how they intend to govern."

One of Manitoba's leading political scholars, however, doesn't seeanything unusual in attack ads that stretch the truth.

"All parties misrepresent the positions of their opponents. They also exaggerate their policy differences," said Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

"These two tactics are intended to solidify their base, appeal to independents, and arouse somnolent voters so they will cast a ballot."

Thomas nonetheless said it is unethical to lie about the policy intentions of opponents and compared Stefanson's initial claims about the source of the purported PST hike to the tactics of an American demagogue.

"It reminded me immediately of Donald Trump's frequent use of the phrase 'many people are saying.'" Thomas said.

"Without offering evidence about who is saying certain things, we haveno way ofknowing whetheror notconcerns about potentialNDP financial policies are widespread and deeply held among voters."

Again, Manitoba is five months away from a provincial election. It's safe to say more attack ads will appear before Oct. 3.

Attack ad campaigns underway - 5 months before Manitoba's election

1 year ago

Duration 2:07

If you can't wait for this fall's provincial election, you're in luck: Manitoba's two most popular political parties are already taking aim at each other in attack ads.