Fueling The Election Train IV

John Turley-Ewart: McGuinty's 'FLICK OFF!' campaign isn't clever. It's plain dumb

Remember when Dalton McGuinty was elected Premier of Ontario in 2003? His goal was to be remembered as the education premier, the leader who put kids first and made their education a priority.
His Liberal government claimed to understand the needs of parents and their expectations. Almost as soon as he was sworn in as Premier he told Ontario parents:
"We've seen you make the kids lunches, fill out the school forms, sell the chocolate almonds, put in more than a full day at the office or down at the plant and still manage to get the kids to Brownies or hockey practice ... our government will be as tireless as you are."
Yesterday that "tireless" government let Ontario parents, educators and most importantly the province's children down by launching a vulgar environmental program aimed at children. At a cost of $500,000, Ontario Environment Minister, Laurel Broten, launched the FLICK OFF! campaign with the government's corporate partners — Virgin Mobile, MuchMusic, Roots Canada and Environmental Defence. It's goal is to promote energy conservation by having kids turn off unnecessary lights.

T-shirts, bracelets and stickers will be sold through Roots stores that say FLICK OFF!. But here's the catch. The font used makes FLICK OFF! read as F--K OFF!
Head over to the Ontario government supported Web site and kids learn that we have 10 years to reduce green house gas emissions or we're "screwed."
Reports in the press suggest the Premier's Office thinks parents who find this campaign offensive lack a sense of humour, that they are just not with it. Parents who prefer that their children not debase themselves by telling family and friends to F--K OFF see things differently.
Ms. Broten, when announcing this program, said "The McGuinty government is proud to be part of this coalition that empowers Ontarians to take action." But decent minded Ontarians are ashamed of this Minister and her government for its lack of judgment and encouraging children to use language that has no place in our schools or public debates.
Indeed, the T-shirts that the Minister wants kids to wear could not be worn to the province's schools, where dress codes don't permit students to wear garments dressed up with deeply offensive language.
Ms. Broten must resign, Mr. McGuinty must apologize and, Ontario should pursue whatever means it has at its disposal to retrieve the $500,000 that was put into the ill-advised campaign.
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Posted Thursday, April 26, 2007 11:21 AM by John Turley-Ewart