The Liberal government is defending almost $3 million in polling contracts given to the Gandalf Group, a firm led by the man named this week to head the party’s 2018 re-election campaign.

Deputy Premier Deb Matthews said Thursday that the firm helmed by veteran Liberal operative David Herle is one of many that have qualified as “vendors of record” to bid on government projects.

“These are not political contracts,” she insisted after Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown raised the issue in the Legislature’s daily question period.

“There are vendors of record. They have to compete against at least five other competitors. It’s an independent panel of public servants who make decisions about what company is best suited for the project,” Matthews added.

Brown said the contracts are “shameful” and called Herle a “Liberal crony.”

“Putting the Liberal spin aside, $3 million of taxpayer resources, $420 an hour to their chief Liberal electoral strategist, it’s just not right,” Brown told MPPs, noting a report on the contracts appeared in the online publication The Rebel.

Matthews did not dispute the numbers.

Herle, who was instrumental in Premier Kathleen Wynne’s 2014 campaign and works for a wide range of corporate clients, could not be reached for comment but a colleague said there is nothing untoward about how the contracts are meted out.

“That work came as the result of a bidding process,” said Alex Swann, a principal at Gandalf. “That’s a long-standing approach to opinion contracting for us and a lot of other companies.”

Brown called on the government to release all the results of Gandalf Group polling, but stopped short of demanding changes in the way contracts are awarded to firms whose principals have political ties to governing parties.

“It was paid for by the people and the people should see this data. If you have nothing to hide, release it,” Brown urged.

That prompted a retort from Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid.

“Who are you to ask anyone to release anything?” he shouted at Brown, who has refused to release emails linked to his office’s secret negotiations with social conservatives about the party’s reversal on sex education during the recent byelection in Scarborough-Rouge River.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said cosy relationships between the government and contractors with political ties create the appearance of a “conflict of interest.”

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

“These are the very kinds of things that make people question this premier,” she told reporters, also not specifying any measures to change the way contracts are awarded.

“The Liberal Party of Ontario is very much focused on what’s good for Liberals.”