TORONTO — Applause paid for by taxpayers and carried out by government staff is the new norm at the press conferences of Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet.

The clapping habit comes on top of the Conservatives’ roll-out of a taxpayer-funded site called Ontario News Now. It’s paid for by taxpayers through the Tories’ caucus budget and features a former broadcaster-turned Conservative staffer delivering “exclusive content” from the premier.

[READ MORE: Ford, Horwath spiral into shouting match at Queen’s Park]

The latest round of paid-for applause came on Tuesday when Community Services Minister Lisa MacLeod took questions from reporters for eight minutes before loud applause from staff cut the news conference off. One reporter was still in line to ask a question on McLeod’s decision to slash income assistance and cancel the basic income pilot program.

The premier’s office did not clarify whether the applause was from political staff or also civil servants.

After answering a handful of questions @MacLeodLisa staffers and other PC staff clap on cue to drown out reporters…something we have seen at most @fordnation news conferences. Caught tail end, press gallery colleague @ColinDMello stands up for media & tells them to stop #ONPoli pic.twitter.com/EX5DppxzN6 — Travis Dhanraj (@Travisdhanraj) July 31, 2018

Applause also marked the end of Ford’s announcement last week when he said he would cut the size of Toronto’s council by almost half.

Staff were also on hand to applaud the premier and ministers Vic Fedeli and Peter Bethlenfalvy when the trio announced the commission of inquiry into the province’s finances and a line-by-line audit of government spending.

The practice is a carry-over from Ford’s election campaign, when his staff would also applaud him at the end of press conferences. Now though, taxpayers pay their salaries.

[READ MORE: Ford says he’s the most accessible to media; facts show the opposite]

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner called the new government’s M.O. “inappropriate” and said they should stop.

If the tables were turned and this was happening under a Liberal government, Schreiner said the Tories would be “very upset about it.”

“They were rightfully upset about the way the Liberals used taxpayers’ dollars for advertising, this isn’t much different,” he said.

The one outlier in the new communications strategy came with Environment Minister Rod Phillips’ press conference last week, when no applause was given following an announcement on cap-and-trade.

Frustration at the applause that drowns out reporters’ questions boiled over on Tuesday with reporters yelling at the staff to stop.

“Can you please stop clapping,” shouted CTV’s Colin D’Mello. “This is a professional environment, stop it.”

On Twitter D’Mello later said he resorted to using his “dad voice” adding “they clapped. We clapped back.”

Dalhousie University’s interim director at the School of Public Administration, Dr. Lori Turnbull said the “manufactured” applause at the press conferences is “terrible” if its from civil servants but is part and parcel with modern political communications if it’s from political staff that are there to support the executive.

“It’s about wanting to generate support around a political message,” she said. “In the same way that people want to generate likes on Facebook and retweets on Twitter we want to be seen to generate a consensus around and idea and this is another way of doing that.”

While reporters and people who work in the legislature know that paid people are applauding the message pushed by the government, Turnbull said its unlikely that a broadcast news audience would know that.

The government could be “making it seem like there’s a consensus when there’s not,” she said. “I’m not sure even Trump has applause afterwards.”

Carleton University journalism professor Christopher Waddell called the applause “pretty bush league” and an “attempt to intimidate journalists” while they’re working.

He said “having a cheerleading section or having an audience is counter-productive” to reporters who are there to get information on government policy.

Waddell suggested journalists shouldn’t attend press conferences when the government is using them for “theatre.”

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