VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - It's no secret Super Bowl ads don't run cheap.
NDP leader
Adrian Dix is fuming over money spent by the Liberals on a couple of taxpayer-funded TV commercials that ran during yesterday's game.
Dix says the two 30-second ads that ran are part of a $1-million package.
"The Liberal minister responsible calls that great value, but how can that be when we're borrowing money, running a deficit, and we're telling lots of groups that we don't have enough money to spend on vital public services?" he asks.
It comes at a time when
Christy Clark's government is struggling to regain popularity.
A recent
poll shows the Liberals have fallen well behind Dix and the NDP.
"What they're doing here is trying to brand the Premier," Dix claims. "That's what this is exercise is about and they've decided in this difficult budget year to spend a million dollars doing it."
Dix says it's not a first for the Liberals, pointing out the millions spent last year to try and sell the HST.
"They seem addicted to this when what they need to do, it seems to me, is deliver the fundamentals to people and that's what they're not doing."
He says money used for advertising could have been better spent on groups desperate for cash, like
Community Living BC.
Jobs Minister
Pat Bell says Dix must not think it's important to market BC and build the economy.
"Those two ads combined cost a total of $17,000," he said. "That's against what he has projected. He's badly misinformed and should start doing his homework."
He says it was a steal of a deal because most ad time during the game sold for $250,000, and that the price worked out that way based on the "nature of the buy."
Bell says Dix shouldn't offer suggestions on how money could be better spent. He says Dix is quick to offer financial solutions to problems that need different fixes, claiming the opposition leader has offered up $7 billion in commitments of various sorts with no plan to pay for them.