OTTAWA—A left-wing pressure group has launched a month-long advertising blitz painting Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer as a “yes-man” to the wealthy.

Engage Canada, a union-backed progressive coalition, is pushing out television and digital ads suggesting Scheer would cut taxes for wealthy Canadians and cut public services.

The ads also try and tie Scheer to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose popularity has waned among the steady stream of cuts announced by the Progressive Conservative government.

The campaign is expected to run until June 30, when new spending restrictions and transparency requirements on third-party election advertising kick in.

Engage Canada describes itself as a non-partisan “grassroots” organization, but has been associated with both Liberal and New Democrat strategists as well as unions. While the group doesn’t publicly disclose their backers, a source working with the organization said they’re funded by “labour organizations, professional associations and individual Canadians.”

The organization was last active before the 2015 federal election, when they took out anti-Conservative advertising accusing the former Harper government of neglecting Canada’s middle class — a message that mirrored Justin Trudeau’s main message during the campaign.

There are almost no restrictions on third-party advertising in Canada outside of an election period. Last year, the Liberal government tweaked election laws to put spending limits on third-party political advertising during the three-month period before the election campaign.

Those limits kick in on June 30.

Read more:

Scheer accuses Trudeau of ‘stacking the deck’ to get re-elected

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: