The New Democrats say the Metrolinx transit agency for the Greater Toronto Area planned to use Internet and social media to persuade Ontarians to support higher taxes to pay for new transit — a claim quickly disputed by Metrolinx.

A document released Thursday by the NDP from an access to information request shows Metrolinx leaders looked at lessons from a 2012 referendum in Atlanta on transit financing.

In that plebiscite, the public voted against raising taxes to improve the sprawling Sun Belt city's transit system.

One of the lessons learned included "Fake Twitter handles that offer reasons to vote 'no,'" and noted that Metrolinx' social media contractor the Fleishman Hillard PR firm,had "already secured multiple handles and URLs to minimize this risk."

The NDP say this shows Metrolinx was planning to use anonymous "astroturf" strategies to push government policy — a term for a large government or corporate actor hiding their messages with what's supposed to appear as "grassroots" lobbying.

"Public dollars should not be used to falsify the response of the public around how we fund transit in this province," NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said while campaigning Thursday morning.

"We were quite disappointed the Liberals would go to any length to justify their decisions."

"This is blatant misuse of people’s tax dollars to serve Liberal political interests. After 10 years of scandal after scandal, it is time to put the Liberals in the penalty box," said Timmins-James Bay New Democrat Gilles Bisson.

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the memo is being misinterpreted.

"It is a common corporate practice to set up accounts that are similar to your corporate name to prevent others from using it and intentionally or unintentionally confusing the public," Aikins said in an email to QP Briefing.

"We can confirm that none of the accounts were ever used. I'm not actually sure of the names of the accounts. We only communicate through our official accounts and through our spokespeople. And we are always transparent."

It's common on Twitter, and on the broader web, for critics to adopt similar Twitter handles or web addresses for satirical purposes or otherwise. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, for example, has had several parody accounts including @TOMayorFrod, which was eventually suspended by Twitter.

According to Metrolinx, Fleishman Hillard created the fake accounts to prevent exactly that occurrence.

The NDP's allegations are just the latest in what's been a week of attacks on the Liberals for alleged "corruption" at Queen's Park, as the NDP sharpen their tone in the last two weeks of the election campaign.

It's not clear, however, that Metrolinx was ever going to use those Twitter accounts for any purpose whatsoever.

Aside from Aikins' statement to QP Briefing, the document released by the NDP shows Metrolinx chair Rob Prichard saying Metrolinx needed to avoid a referendum if it was at all possible, because of the volatile nature of the electorate. Fleishman Hillard's work may have therefore been a taxpayer-funded contingency plan that Metrolinx never needed, as the Liberals have not proposed a referendum for transit funding.

Metrolinx defends social media practices as NDP cry foul

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