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Tory ads show perils of using stock photos

A stock photo of an Atlantic salmon was incorrectly used to back a Tory announcement about saving Pacific salmon habitats in B.C.

The federal Conservatives are learning the hard way that the power of social media will not let flubs go unnoticed, particularly when they involve stock photos.

Leader Stephen Harper stopped in the riding of North Island-Powell River in British Columbia on Friday to announce the promise of $15 million towards repairing wild salmon habitats. He then tweeted a poster of a salmon jumping upstream, with the banner “Protecting British Columbia’s Natural Environment,” along with the Tory logo.

Only problem was that whoever designed the poster used a stock image of an Atlantic salmon, not a Pacific salmon. The image was later attributed to a photographer in England who snapped the shot on the river Tyne at Hexham, located in Northumberland County.

The tweet about the salmon was quickly taken down and replaced with the correct species, but not before astute Twitter users, including Derrick O’Keefe and Alexandra Morton, could respond.

Harper used a picture of an Atlantic salmon from the UK for a Van Island event. So maybe the fish owned some property in BC. #elxn42 #bcpoli

— Derrick O'Keefe (@derrickokeefe) August 22, 2015

How do we know Harper doesn't give a damn about wild salmon? He used an Atlantic salmon to say he is protecting BC! pic.twitter.com/kfp1xws1Cj

— alexandramorton (@alex4salmon) August 22, 2015

Last Thursday, Harper announced that he’d increase the federal tax credit to help subsidize the cost of adoption if he forms the next government.

Unfortunately, the image of a mixed race family used for the announcement on Twitter and the Conservative website was also from a stock photo site, and proved not to have any ties to Canada, according to a media report. It was originally taken in Slovenia, by photographer Jure Gasparic, and the family in the photo now resides in Seattle.

It doesn’t appear the child in the stock image was adopted either. Based on a Facebook photo album titled Nuno Time: Nuno’s First Week, the baby was born to the parents who also appear in the stock photo.

We'll help Canadian parents who adopt children by increasing the value of the Adoption Expense Tax Credit to $20,000 http://t.co/VsZPEU59CS

— Stephen Harper (@pmharper) August 20, 2015