OTTAWA—One of Canada’s largest public sector unions is planning a nationwide ad campaign targeting Conservative government policies, the Star has learned.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada will roll out the campaign Tuesday morning, labelled as “public awareness” on cuts to various public services under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

PSAC told the Star Monday they don’t consider the “Vote to Stop the Cuts” campaign as attack ads, despite repeatedly referencing the “Harper government” or “Harper Conservatives.”

“No, they are to raise awareness within the public of what the cuts that the Harper Conservatives have introduced and actually carried out, what those cuts really mean to Canadians each and every day,” said Chris Aylward, the national executive vice-president of PSAC.

In addition to newspaper, radio and television advertising, the union plans to launch a website featuring the ads, which they say will be fully backed up and sourced.

The campaign will focus on six areas — Veterans’ Affairs, search and rescue, food safety, environmental protection, border security, and employment insurance benefits — that PSAC said have all seen cuts over the recent years of Conservative rule.

The PSAC campaign is the latest in a controversial string of third-party advertising in the lead-up to the federal election, scheduled for October. Another group, the pro-Conservative HarperPAC, closed its operations after the Conservative Party publicly denounced their use of the prime minister’s name.

Working Canadians, another Conservative-supporting initiative attempting to raise money to fight back against what they call the “financial and economic consequences of union bosses having too much power,” have launched ads targeting both the NDP and Liberals. Engage Canada, a left-leaning pressure group, has recently begun airing ads accusing the Conservatives of neglecting Canada’s middle class.

Third-party advertisers are free to spend unlimited amounts of money outside of an official election period but their limits begin when the election writ is officially dropped.

Michael Pal, a law professor at the University of Ottawa specializing in electoral law, said the recent rise in third-party advertising is the result of a number of factors — including the Conservative party’s own perceived success in advertising outside an election period.

“The fixed election date matters, that’s a big factor for sure, (but) I think it’s also that the Conservative Party showed . . . how using your money before the spending limit kicks in, so before the campaign, can be very effective,” Pal said.

“It’s also that we have a clear example from the U.S.”

While PSAC is promising a “fact-based” campaign, it will be difficult to actually assess their claim because the government has been very reluctant to release those facts.

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The Parliamentary Budget Office, a creation of the Conservative government, has resorted in the past to taking departments to court over their reluctance to release information about the front-line effects of the 2012 budget’s belt-tightening. That led to a very public disagreement with former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page.

Aylward repeatedly stressed that PSAC’s claims in the ad campaign will be backed up with facts. He also said the union is not supporting — or telling their members to vote for — any specific party or candidate.

“Our message to our members specifically is to get out and vote,” Aylward said. “And then number two, you know, is obviously you have to take the information that we’ve compiled, and . . . make a conscious decision when you cast that ballot. And it’s the same thing with this overall public campaign.”

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