BY HEIDI
ULRICHSEN
Nickel Belt MPP Shelley Martel thinks there's a sinister
purpose behind the provincial government's decision to spend
$219,000 to re-design  Ontario's trillium logo.
The familiar t-shaped logo, which dates back to 1964, has been
changed to a stylized version of the flower. Martel says it is
similar to the logo used on Ontario Liberal Party materials.
 She found out about the change after stories were printed
in the media in late June.
"If you see the sign often enough, then you link that to the
Liberal party because it's almost the same as their political
logo," she says.
"You could argue that it's an attempt to get people to
connect the Liberals to government."
The logo re-design was done by the advertising firm Bensimon
Byrne, the same firm that created the Liberals' 2003 election
ads, says Martel.
In the year after the Liberals took power, the firm won $6.3
million in government advertising contracts, compared with
$99,900 in the final year the Tory government held power, she
says.
If the Liberals didn't change the logo to influence people's
votes, she's not sure why it was done.
" I have no idea why the government did this or why they
were thinking it was necessary," she says. "This whole thing is
completely inappropriate, not necessary and a gross waste of
taxpayers' dollars."
Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips says the logo
was changed to reflect the modernization of government.
If you look at the new logo and the Liberal logo, they don't look anything alike, he says. In fact, the new trillium looks more like the NDP logo, says Phillips.
"I just think that's a huge stretch...It's an opposition response."
