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The response also shows that the government spent more than $1.6 million in total on all ORPP advertising.

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Yes, of course we all knew the election would be held on Oct. 19, 2015, thanks to the fixed election law, and that nearly all signs were pointing to an unusually long campaign. But the ORPP was scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2017, you see, and Ontarians had to be informed early about plans for this important change. So what was the Wynne government supposed to do: not run curiously timed government promotions during the federal election campaign? Bah! By then it would be too late.

According to a freedom of information request filed by the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, the Ontario government spent $592,834 on ORPP ads between Aug. 2 and Oct. 14, which was five days before the federal election. The request also shows Wynne’s Liberals spent nearly $1.7 million on ORPP ads in total up to Oct. 14, indicating the government had been doing plenty of “educating” well before the writ was dropped (indeed, it launched a series of radio ads in July), and saw no reason to pause.

“I think it takes a while for people to learn about a thing and to know that it’s coming,” Wynne said on Monday. “So that initial advertising was about foreshadowing for people that this is coming so they will hear more about it in the future.” So the aim, thus, was to alert Ontarians that they were about to be alerted?

The premier was wary enough to avoid suggesting Ontarians could take it up with the auditor general, considering it was the Wynne government that neutered that office last spring by amending its oversight rules to reduce what could be defined as “partisan” advertising. During the election, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk remarked that her office would have “suggested that perhaps the timing of running the ads could be construed as partisan,” but that “under the new act that type of thing only applies to direct criticism of a provincial party.”