Some of the advertising in the recent Canadian Wheat Board election caught the attention of more than voters.
Election co-ordinator Peter Eckersley says he will be looking into whether some of the newspaper and radio ads and mailouts were meant to mislead voters.
“I have received complaints regarding the manner in which some of the advertising has been done and we’re following up on that.”
Some of the complaints centred on mailed brochures that resembled official documents from the election office, but were in fact promotional material supporting the election of a slate of dual market candidates.
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National Farmers Union executive secretary Darrin Qualman said the NFU will ask the co-ordinator to conduct a formal review into some of the advertising practices.
A lot of money was spent by third parties, most of it to elect dual market supporters, and some of it was “clearly designed to be misleading,” he said.
Not much can be done after the fact, and no one will ever know what impact advertising had on how farmers voted, he said.
But at the very least, the NFU thinks future third party advertising must include information identifying who paid for it.
Eckersley said the issue of advertiser identification will be reviewed.
“I’m not aware of what restrictions the election co-ordinator can place on that, but certainly one of the observations in my final report will relate to just that issue.”
