OTTAWA - The Liberals are complaining to the federal ethics commissioner over government use of taxpayer cheques bearing the Conservative party logo or Tory MPs' signatures.
Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson is being asked to investigate 48 separate examples of promotional government cheques that Tory MPs used to tout stimulus spending for partisan gain.
The Liberals claim to have dug up 181 examples of partisan cheque presentations going back to 2007 on which Conservative emblems overshadow the Government of Canada logo.
To underscore their point, the Liberals held a news conference Thursday beneath a backdrop image of Prime Minister Stephen Harper made from a collage of photographs of the cheque presentations.
The bulk of those placards bear the MP's name and signature. The Liberals say five cheques presented by Tory MPs Gerald Keddy and Colin Mayes are adorned with the Tory logo.
The Liberals and other critics say it's a breach of government rules under the Federal Identity Program.
Keddy's office called it an oversight, but a second photo soon surfaced of the parliamentary secretary presenting another stimulus cheque bearing the Tory logo.
It's not so clear in Mayes's case. A photo on the British Columbia MP's website shows him presenting an over-sized cheque-like placard with his name and the Tory logo beneath the Economic Action Plan heading.
Harper has acknowledged that party logos should not appear on cheques.
But his officials insist there's nothing wrong with Tory MPs presenting government cheques on which their own name, or Tory sloganeering, is the most prominent feature.
A look at Conservative MP websites reveals dozens of cheque presentations on which the MP's name and signature appears in bold letters, while the government of Canada logo is tiny.
It gives the false impression the Tories are paying for the projects out of their own pockets, Liberal MP David McGuinty said.
"If the prime minister wants to have the Conservative party donate money to the people of Canada, we support him. He should do so," he said.
"If he puts another cheque out with a $100,000 tag attached with the Conservative party logo on it, great. Let the Conservative Party of Canada pay for it."
The Liberals have either asked or plan to ask the Public Service Commission of Canada, Elections Canada and the auditor general to look into the cheque presentations.
Peter Stoffer, a veteran New Democrat MP from Nova Scotia, called on the Conservatives to set strict guidelines for how funding announcements are made.
The NDP wants the government to ban all partisan logos, slogans, signatures or wordmarks on government promotional material. And the only logos and signatures allowed should belong to the Government of Canada and the Receiver General of Canada, they say.
The New Democrats also want opposition MPs invited to funding announcements held in their ridings.
