By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
A Halifax radio station known for pushing the envelop on contests says any resemblance between their fictitious contest character “Richard” the frugal MLA and former Yarmouth MLA Richard Hurlburt was strictly coincidence.
But so as not to hurt anyone, the radio station has changed the name of the character in their contest from Richard to Dick.
Q104 had been running a contest in which people can win up to $20,000 and a trip to Cuba if they can guess how much money “Richard” the frugal MLA has buried in the tropics.
On Wednesday, J.C. Douglas, Q104’s program director, told The Vanguard that Richard is a very common name and he said it was “coincidence, pure coincidence” that their contest persona shared the same first name as the former MLA who resigned amid an MLA expense spending scandal.
“We’re not here to hurt anyone,” he said. “So we’ve agreed that in order to provide our flexibility on the issue, we’re changing the name of the character from Richard to Dick. We think that’s appropriate.”
When interviewed by CBC News about the contest earlier in the week, Douglas had said the “Richard” on which their contest is based was a “completely fictional character.”
“Any resemblance to real people, real-life situations is completely, completely coincidence,” he said.
On the radio station’s website the contest about their fictional character "Richard" read:
“Meet Richard the frugal MLA. He's really good with money . . . your money. Hard earned taxpayer's money! Richard's double-dippy, kickbacky, loopholey talents have him living the high life . . . on your dime. But the auditor general pointed a big fat finger at Richard, so he's bolting to the tropics with a massive bag of your cash and buried it on the beach . . . Guess how much money Richard has taken, and if you're right, you win the cash! Could be anywhere from $1 to $20,000! Q104 and Transat Holidays will send you to the Caribbean to dig it up.”
"What this really comes down to is it's just too personal." - Gary Howard, CAA spokesperson
The winner of the contest will stay at the Sirenis Playa Turquesa resort in Holguin, Cuba.
There is a photo that accompanies the contest description, although it wasn’t a picture of Hurlburt. It’s a photo of some dude dressed in a suit lighting a cigar with a $100 bill.
But not everyone agrees that “Richard the frugal MLA” seemed made-up.
The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) was a sponsor of the contest. It pulled their sponsorship of the “Richard” the frugal MLA contest saying it was “too personal.”
CAA vice-president of marketing Gary Howard told The Vanguard on Wednesday that originally they were told the concept of the contest was to poke fun at the MLA expense spending scandal as a whole.
“Where we got uncomfortable with it, and we spoke with Q104 and they’re saying this was not intentional to Mr. Hurlburt . . . but our feeling is regardless of what happened in the scandal, and we’re not condoning any excessive spending by any means, this just got a little too personal,” Howard said. “This hits home. This man has family and friends. Whether it’s intentional or not, he’s going to feel it the same way.
