Goodale approves of PPC billboards being taken down

Fresh off his own frustrations over billboards, Regina-Wascana MP Ralph Goodale gave a nod Monday to the removal of billboards supporting Maxime Bernier and his stance on immigration.

The billboards went up across Canada a few days ago. They show a large photo of Bernier next to the phrase “Say NO to mass immigration.”

“It was a distasteful message … It leaves a very negative kind of message to so many Canadians that this is not an inclusive country when, indeed, it is an inclusive country,” Goodale said during a media conference in Regina on Monday morning.

By the time the veteran Liberal MP spoke, the billboards were already being taken down.

Despite originally saying the billboards would stay up because they didn’t violate advertising standards codes, the billboard company had said by Sunday evening that it had changed its mind.

An outpouring of disagreement and frustration met the billboards across the country — something Goodale sees as a good thing.

“It’s a very hopeful sign that as soon as Canadians saw those billboards, from one end of the country to the other, they said, ‘No, that’s not us,’ ” he said.

The billboards were put up by a third party with which the People’s Party of Canada said it is not affiliated. However that hasn’t stopped Bernier from railing against them being taken down, calling it censorship.

Bernier blamed a “totalitarian leftist mob” for the outcry.

— With files from the Canadian Press