Liberal MPs today said the Conservative government’s fixation with self-congratulatory Economic Plan advertising over H1N1 awareness messaging is risking public health.
“Even fewer Canadians plan to get vaccinated today than a few months ago, which is proof positive that the Conservatives have either failed to get their message out, seeded confused among the public, or their advice just isn’t trusted,” said Liberal Public Health Critic Kirsty Duncan.
Dr. Duncan referred to more discoveries of economic plan signs found in front of federal buildings to advertise routine maintenance, while there are no signs to inform the public about H1N1.
Only one-third of Canadians plan to get the H1N1 flu vaccine, down from 45 per cent in August, according to the Canadian Press. 70 per cent of Canadians need to get vaccinated in order to stop the highly contagious flu pandemic from spreading through the population. Current estimates fear that as many as one-third of Canadians will get the H1N1 flu, which poses serious health risks to many segments of the population.
“Conservatives need to ditch their partisan advertising campaign and switch their focus to getting Canadians equipped for H1N1,” said Liberal Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Critic Pablo Rodriguez. “Instead, Prime Minister Harper has confused the public by telling them to get the seasonal flu vaccine first, and hasn’t encouraged the public to get vaccinated once.”
Mr. Rodriguez explained that the Conservative government has spent at least $60 million on self-congratulatory advertisements that do not provide information needed by the Canadian public, but rather extol the virtues of the Government of Canada through unsubstantiated, false and exaggerated claims of accomplishment. In comparison, only $6.5 million has been allocated to boost H1N1 flu awareness.
