Yes, absolutely. Government ads can be very useful if they provide a lot of information, or if they're telling citizens about services that are available to them. Too often, government advertising is used to placate citizens and make them feel good about being a Canadian, and in an election campaign that kind of spillover might have an effect for one candidate over another. That's what we need to be leery of.
The conversation you and Professor Marland just had about colours is really a conversation about how we ensure that government advertising is seen as separate and distinct from party advertising. In an election campaign, there is lots of party advertising, so my solution would be to stop government advertising.