After three years of modest government advertising, Ontarians are now being inundated with health care and education success stories on television, radio and print media. Just the air time alone for television ads has cost taxpayers $4.5-million to this point.

Recent headlines do not echo the government's assessment of their own performance. Since release of the ads, two hospitals emergency room's (Hanover Hospital and Kitchener's Grand River Hospital) have been on brink of closing due to understaffing. Meanwhile, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board has been taken over by the province for not balancing their books. The Toronto public and catholic boards are likely to face a similar fate.

Under scrutiny from the media and opposition, Premier McGuinty has defended the ads. Not on the merits of their content, but on the grounds that they are less partisan than those of his predecessors!

The premier is correct in his assertion that the previous government was guilty of wasting taxpayer money for politically motivated advertising. Under the leadership of Premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, the Ontario government spent upwards of $10-million on brochures which featured their images prominently. On average, the previous PC government spent $44-million a year compared to the $31-million a year the current Liberal government has spent since taking office in 2003.

Although the current Liberal government may have a less offensive track record when it comes to government ads, it's worth noting what a radical departure Mr. McGuinty has taken from his previous position. Amidst many other promises during the 2003 election campaign, Dalton McGuinty vowed to end taxpayer-funded partisan advertising.

This seemed like a promise the Liberal government could finally keep. However, the current message being conveyed in government ads is eerily similar to the tightly crafted partisan message Premier McGuinty has been delivering in his election-style tour stops of recent weeks. Coincidence I think not.

On a visit to the Rouge Valley Hospital, Premier McGuinty was challenged on the truth behind a half page print advertisement which stated: "Right now across Ontario there are more nurses ... more MRI technologists ... And there are more doctors ready to help you ... so you spend less time waiting." Kathryn Townsend, a nurse in attendance at the event enlightened a bewildered McGuinty that no new nurses had been added at the hospital to improve wait-times.

The auditor general has confirmed that the premier is not in breach of the new advertising legislation despite the obvious partisan message being conveyed. However, it is important to consider that it was Premier McGuinty who developed this legislation - one which can best be described as a paper tiger.

It is also important to remember that it was Premier McGuinty who initiated fixed election dates. And it is Premier McGuinty who has approved this multi-million dollar ad campaign just one year before a provincial election. What this all adds up to is the beginning of another promise broken by the McGuinty Liberal government.

Premier McGuinty clinging to the previous government's poor record on partisan advertising is a sorry justification for wasting even more tax dollars today. And even at that, he is only holding on by a thread: At the rate the government is spending money on advertising in their final year before the election, they will easily exceed the amount spent by the previous Harris and Eves governments.