Unifor-linked third party organization launches Andrew Scheer attack ads

A left-wing third-party group has launched attack ads against Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer.

Engage Canada, which describes itself as a “a non-partisan, independent project” was known to collect data for Unifor ahead of the 2015 federal election intended to swing Conservative-leaning voters away from voting for Stephen Harper.

The advertisements against Scheer, target him as a “Yes Man to the 1%” and will be running on a variety of platforms including social media and television. They are expected to carry on until June 30th when third-party advertising restrictions kick in.

The group has several suspected links to NDP and Liberal strategists as well as a number of unions.

“Engage Canada received donations from across the country. We did approach the unions and are very grateful for their generous support of our  campaign,” said a spokesperson for the group in 2015 about their alleged funding.

In 2015, the group launched a similar advertising campaign to discredit Stephen Harper ahead of that year’s federal election.

Unifor Preisdent, Jerry Dias called the group’s research “incredibly effective” and admitted that the union had provided an undisclosed amount of funding to Engage Canada in 2015.

“[Unifor was] a  major supporter of Engage – we played a significant role. There is no  question there was significant money raised but I won’t get into it,” said Dias.

Unifor was recently hand picked to be a member of the “independent” commission charged with distributing the federal government’s $600 million media bailout package included in the 2019 Liberal budget.

Critics have expressed outrage over Unifor’s inclusion due to their past partisan comments, where they have declared themselves as “Andrew Scheer’s worst nightmare”.

Since then, Dias has publicly called out Scheer on social media suggesting that he is “unfit to lead” and has written a column in the Toronto Sun doubling down on his position.