Truth in announcements

UPDATE: Colby Cosh has an even better idea -- just ban the stupid cheques in the first place.

Hard to see anything wrong with these suggestions, from an NDP press release:

Today, the New Democrats called on Stephen Harper to introduce guidelines for government stimulus announcements, including:

A ban on all partisan logos, slogans, signatures or wordmarks on government promotional material; the only logo to appear on any promotional cheque should be the logo of the Government of Canada; only the signature of the Receiver General of Canada, not government Ministers or MPs should be placed on promotional materials.

When announcements take place in a riding held by an opposition MP, the MP should be invited to the funding announcement in recognition of their work on behalf of their constituents. No Conservative Party candidates should be invited to announcements in opposition held ridings as is currently the case.

Stoffer said such changes would take the partisanship out of announcements, including the Harper government’s routine practice of inviting Conservative Party candidates to funding announcements in opposition ridings. Meanwhile the incumbent opposition MP is often left off the invitation list and finds out about the announcement from the local media.