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Uhhhhhggg. At this point, I have to make sure my eyes don’t roll out of my head, bounce down my chest and get lodged under the brake pedal — safety first! Still, I hang on. There’s going to be a point to this thing … right? Is the public being asked to participate in consultations? No, can’t be. They did those already. Do people need to sign up for this thing right now? Even if it gets off the ground, it’s still two years away. Well?!

“You’ll be hearing more about the ORPP soon,” our guide tells us before pointing us to a web site with more promotional information. “TTYL! Paid for by the Government of Ontario.”

Or, if we’re being really specific, paid for with tax revenue collected by the Government of Ontario.

And to what end? The sheer pointlessness of the ad — effectively, “Hey just wanted to make sure to tell you again about the signature promise from our last campaign platform that we already talk about ad nauseam! Don’t worry, I’ll be back to tell you about it again in a little while!” — is all the more glaring because, in the spring, the Liberals signalled their desire to tinker with the provincial Government Advertising Act.

The act — let’s call it the GAA since we’re on an acronym kick — is the first and only law of its kind in Canada, and it was introduced by the Liberals under Dalton McGuintyafter questionable ad spending by their predecessors. The GAA gives the provincial auditor general the ability to review and, if necessary, spike ads that are seen as too partisan. An ad is partisan if the auditor general finds that “a primary objective of the item is to promote the partisan political interests of the governing party.”