Watch, Rate and Comment on the New Conservative TV Ads which Attack the Liberals

I won't go as far as to rate the ads because I am of the view that we as Canadians are getting very tired of negative ads by All parties. Stop telling me what the opposition didn't do and tell me What you are going to do, and then I will decide where I will park my vote.
I think that the Conservative ads could come back and bit them. And I hope that the Liberals do not do what they did last election and join in the "negative" ad game.

[updated Wed Jan 31 14:32:05 EST 2007]

I have just seen all three of these ads and if these are attack ads how would you rate the ads that the Liberals ran in the last election, at best slanderous I say. There were not any interpretations on behalf of the conservatives as they just let the Liberals state their opinions as they had done so in their own convention and if they are not true then I suppose they lied to their delegates.

[updated Wed Jan 31 14:35:51 EST 2007]

Thanks for the chance to "vote" on these ads.

You ask above which of the ads is most effective. I think the one on the environment and the one about Stephane not being a leader are both quite effective. As for changing anyone's mind - I think you will find on this board no one's mind will be changed but this does not mean they won't have an effect in the general populace. Also you ask us to rate them as informative or not. Not sure information is the most potent of the factors "carried" by the ad. None of these ads are really very informative, certainly not for anyone following federal politics in even a minor way. More important is their emotive power. The one with Ignatieff saying "we didn't get it done" and Stephane's response about priorities with the laughter of the audience carries the most emotional weight.

These are hardly "attack" ads; they are just Liberals debating with Liberals. Nothing is made up or exaggerated. The truth sometimes hurts.

All three are effective and the timing is fine. There is no need to wait for an election to gain political points; not the first time such a communications strategy has been utilized by political parties.

[updated Wed Jan 31 14:59:54 EST 2007]

I would seem to me that the Conservative attack adds are giving Dion media exposure and causing the electorate to take note but I am not too sure the ads will sway the voters. I chuckle at the ad with the Ignatieff and the Dion exchange-----"We did not get it done"--- and I imagine there will be a few more good clips to "cut and paste" from the Liberal leadership race. Somehow I do not think the electorate today is so shallow as to be swayed by such trite clips and I believe the voters demand more substance. Harper's letter of a few years ago to the Reform membership whereby he describes Kyoto as a socialist plot that will require an army to defeat is rather telling about the character of the man who is now trying to paint himself green. I believe TRUST and CREDIBILITY will be a major component of the upcoming election and, for me, hospital accessibility is right up there with the environment and the accessibility plank from the last election is one the Harper government has not delivered. Personally, I would much rather see the Conservatives doing what they were elected and paid to do and that is govern.

I would suggest that the conservatives are now a pretty nervous bunch as these ads have not only given Dion exposure but they also tell me that he was serious about it during his run for the leadership even with Iggy's comments. Now the Liberals have apparently leaked an old alliance document that shows how much Harper was/is against Kyoto.

I think the liberals have the upper hand here.

Actually Nik I do not need Ads to tell me Dion is a bit of a goof, and I agree with Harper's Letter to Consevatives, this is just away of getting money for their socialist programs. The Liberals only know how to spend money and rip off Canadians, just look at those in the Public Service slow and lazy. And another reason I have no use for Dion, he still linked to corrupted Liberal government under Jean Chretien, he was in Cabinet and did nothing about this Sponsorship program or was it because he was Quebecer and benefit from this illegally gotten money from this Liberal crooks, that still have not been punished, Why is Jean Chretien no in jail!

"That's not fair! You don't know how hard it is to set priorities!" was a brilliant ad, but it may have breached copyright laws. Peter Van Dusan of CPAC said that any outside use of debate video would have to be approved and, most important, that this type of video is never authorized for use by political parties. To date there is no record of the Conservatives purchasing or requesting permission to use the video from the debates.

I'm pretty ambivalent about 'negative' advertising. I like to think ideas and positive approaches can carry the day. Nonetheless, there is a certain strategic wisdom in defining Dion before he and his p.r. people can do so. In the last campaign the Conservatives were very successful at having the Liberals respond to their initiatives, and if they can do that here with something as fundamental as the perception of the Liberal leader, that could start things off on a positive footing for them.
Of the three ads, the second one, regarding the environment is the most effective because Dion is going to rise or fall with that issue. It also is the most informative and the most damaging to Dion's first attempts to create a certain persona.

I think these ads are very effective in that they do not attack Mr. Dion but rather remind us of how the Liberals were really bankrupt of ideas and oh so corrupt, at the end. I think the next election is the Conservatives to lose. Its pretty hard to fault the Conservatives thus far in that they have pretty well done what they said they would do, including holding a less than enthusiastic "free vote" on same sex marriage. These are not really attack ads - the Liberals more than any political party in Canada know how to present real attack ads. The last batch of Liberal attack ads helped turn Canadians against them. The timing is perfect for these ads in that Canadians are looking for real action on the environment, something that they did not get with the Liberals.

I hope that the Conservatives call for Fair Use in Copyright. There is speculation about whether they needed permission from CPAC for the advertisements, something that wouldn't be needed if this was the USA where their copyright laws allow for this type of Fair Use for political commentary.

There is more details on this issue in my BLOG: http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/2950

Sometimes these policy issues need to become personal before people "get it", and maybe the Conservatives will "get it" now why we need to modernize our Copyright act in a positive direction, rather than in the negative direction we saw with Bill C-60.

I think the ads are truthful and expose the Liberals for their hypocrisy. Everyone knows that if the Liberals were in power that the only way we could pretend we were in compliance of the Kyoto target for Canada would be to buy hot air credits costing billions of dollars thus exporting hard earned taxpayer monies to Russia, China or India. This would be a terrible waste of money while our environment would still be no better. Frankly I am getting mighty sick of watching the Liberals who have turned into a one trick pony by incessantly talking about the environment. There are many other issues to be seized but no we keep hearing about the environment to the exclusion of everything else. It is because the new leader, Mr. Dion, is weak and has no experience in economics or any other serious matter. He is a former academic with limited experience on the world stage and in being a leader. I predict if this emphasis on the environment continues by the Liberals and the media regardless of its importance Canadians will stop listening and will be convinced that Mr. Dion is a one trick pony and not capable of being a prime minister for the country.

Well it does show a new level of desperation or low cunning, depending on your personal views. If I donated to the conservative party and saw them spending my money this way, without an election call -- I would be very worried and disgusted. This definitely hands the high road to the liberals and likely will not work. Usually this strategy is used by a party trying to reduce a majority to a minority. Anyways Nik hope you print the letter the liberals used in response and give it some free exposure.

I don't think that it is unfair to "attack" another party's policies. I think that it then becomes the responsibility to provide to the viewer what alternatives are being proposed. These ads may be humourous and entertaining for some and may reflect the "truth" for others but they, in fact, reflect a fear and desparation on the part of the Conservative party. When one is bankrupt of ideas and alternatives and when one feels the walls closing in the only response is one of ridicule and bullying - a technique that Mr. Harper picks up on from his good friend to the South.

Hi Nik

I think the adds show the conservatives have taken a page out of the
Republican book; it is hypocritical for them to criticize the record of the liberal party. When in opposition the conservatives were doing all in their power to stop all and any attempts to have legislature to protect the environment passed by the liberals. As soon as they gained power they cancelled the environments programs that had been introduced by the former government.

When opinion polls told them climate change was important to Canadians; Harper clutched a spray can of green paint and is trying to make everyone believe he received a divine revelations, obviously this revelation told him he was losing political points with his stand, so he immediately re-named the programs and brought them back with much fanfare.

The conservatives have formed the government for over a year and they are still acting like the opposition, makes you wonder when they will start governing. I believe the Canadian public is more intelligent than that and will see through this hypocrisy. The attack ads will backfire on them.

Whatever it takes to keep this Liberal Trash Down is needed in this country, I do not need anymore Crooks running the Government of Canada. WE HAD 13 YEARS OF THIS, REPEAT 13 YEARS REPEAT 13 YEARS, REPEAT 13 YEARS

The bottom line I will not be giving any Liberal or Dion my Vote, personally I do not want to see a Prime Minister coming out of the Province of Quebec for a min. of 50 years. Negative Ads, Positive Ads, No Ads, Banners, this is a fact that the Liberals must face with other Voters.

A added note for others to comment on: Dion to me is the Liberal version of a Joe Clark!

It would not surprise me to see the environmental issue cranked up higher to try to get it to be the number one issue for the coming election. With more and louder rhetoric, some legislation, no doubt some tax breaks. the government will have moved an issue that is topical and has a broard support base, both north and south of the border, into prominance. This is a brilliant tactical move as it "pushes" less popular government issues, that would be vote losers, a little further out of sight. Thus we can expect the last election Conservative priority of hospital access to receive little government attention and the highly unpopular and very costly Afghanistan war issue to receive the silent treatment. But this is politics.. Is there an attempt to blind-side the electorate?

What is really needed in this country, rather than spending on Attack Ads, the Enviroment, is an investigation into the type of individuals we have working in the "Public Serivice" who have been hired by the Public Service Commission, we have far to many dysfunctional people that cannot a simple days work, get a simple website update, Who Im I talking about the Deputy Ministers down to the lowest rung at Citizenship and Immigration, The Canadian Foreign Service (What a Joke) and the Foreign Affairs Departments, do these guys actually get paid for doing nothing, If you work in this Service what is your excuse, months to get a visa, or a police certificate from some country that is irrelevent to being a good citizen, these are the incompetants that we have working in the Public Service Today. Money should spent on Investigations first, Ads second and the Enviroment proposed by these Socialists that are looking for hand outs from taxpayers, like Dion is doing now. Remember the negative report by Sheila Fraser on Dion

Strong leadership with ideas deserves our support. The Conservative ads are in poor taste, vulgar and unrefined and offer no hope or alternative ideas. Good governance deserves our support, not an incumbent Conservative government deflecting from their more recent political concern of the enviornmnet and using campaigns ads to diminish others. The stakes for our global future are high! The politicians are missing the point. Our country, our world, is in desparate need of implementable and measureable enviormental ideas and action.

This is a bit off topic but still relates to above, HOW COME EVERYTIME IN CANADA WHEN A MAJOR CONTRACT IS ANNOUNCED THE FIRST QUESTIONS BY THE MEDIA ARE ALWAYS ABOUT HOW MUCH IS QUEBEC GETTING. My perferred answer would be NOTHING because Quebec does not need anymore handouts, it gets all the handouts from government. THE QUESTION SHOULD BE HOW MUCH IS BRITISH COLUMBIA GETTING because they never receive anything out of Ottawa, God we cannot get our own rightful Taxes back.

Hello Nik,
"The Tories"

Stephen Harper's green-spotted toads;
they hop, they leap, skip, and bloat,
from hot air bubbles, to hot air John Baird.

They believe Stephane Dion is done and gone,
but, Kyoto is still striving on...
Harper may go South,
but Dion is still in the House.

Harper may smear and tug, and deploy,
but Dion will simmer and boil, at the ploy,
and Kyoto will attain the green Al Gore;
all together with Dion they will plore.

Kyoto is Dion's and our hope, Baird is Harper's pit-bull dog.
Although Harper harps, and barks, Baird bares his teeth to bite the bark,
and both Dion and Kyoto will save the friendly hog.

Not a chance for Harper's green-spotted toads,
to malign Dion's green carpeted extolls at the polls,
for Dion will march Kyoto to the polls,
and the Liberals will bash the toads!

Blossom

After listening to the attack ads against Dion and his unkind “extra-weight” statement about Harper, I despair about this current slinging match. These are the elected representatives who we are supposed to respect and who should be setting a good example.

The Tories’ show of pious indignation about Dion’s tactless comment rings hollow. Surely they didn’t expect him to silently stand by and watch his reputation being sullied?

I do agree with the Tory Minister who said that Dion’s remark was unbecoming to a man who aspires to be Prime Minister. By the same token, the attack ads are unbecoming to a Party that aspires to a majority government.

Guergis should stop the self-righteous blather that "real leaders do not go around making fun of other people's weight." I recall her leader saying of defecting MP Belinda Stronach, “I've never really noticed complexity to be Belinda's strong point”. I sense a hint of hypocrisy here. Personal attacks should be beneath the dignity of parliamentarians.

I really didn’t think the ads were effective. They appear to be taken out of context and somewhat amateurish. What’s the rush to malign a new leader so soon and at non-election time? A case of the jitters, maybe?

These meaningless personal attacks by both parties will not distract well-informed Canadians from their issues of concern. What they do is promote lack of respect and they disillusion voters. Moreover, I recently saw a poll asking if political attack ads influence the way you vote. Of the 26,000+ responses, 81% said “No” and 19% said “Yes”. Knowledgeable voters are well aware of what the Liberals did or didn’t do. It’s Tory Showtime now.

I‘m not a card-carrying member of any political party but do intend to exercise my franchise in the next election. At the moment, both major parties are wanting. As H.L. Mencken, a renowned critic of political hypocrisy, said:

“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right.”

Hello Nik,
Good question...Why does a bully attack another person?...because he is running scarred!
I believe that our Prime Minister has finally met his "Waterloo"...
Mr. Harper is realizing that he has been affronted with a worthy opponent, who will
not be silenced, and comply to his affrontries, and arrogant tactics of a dictator, who
dodges the questions, the issues, and does not discriminate about whether or not
his policies are in the interest of Canadians, and this Country.
Mr. Harper's biggest problem, is that now he has an opponent who forces him to
explain his decisions, and policies, and expose his vision for Canada. At least to let us know what they are, and what he stands for. Mr. Harper has hardly told us what he has in mind, for
this Country, and behind closed doors.
Recently, and as usual, Mr. Harper habitually likes to congratulate himself with all that
he has achieved...however, he has also had to do a 180degree turn on many of his
decisions. Just on Foreign policy alone. Income Trusts. The Economy. Softwood-lumber.
The wheat-board which will be another mistake,and much more.
Mr. Harper's lightweight platform agenda has not really worked-out, although he would like to
have us believe that he has succeeded. Most of his decisions, we shall live to regret, unfortunately,
because Mr. Harper's one intention is that of getting a majority government. Fortunately for
the rest of us, this will not happen! He dug his own whole, because he brought down the
Liberals saying that he was going to be transparent and accountable, and he has done just
the contrary, since he has been in power, and unworthy, and dishonourable in government.
Think about this, he is insulting those who want to vote for him. A Prime Minister who said
that he would be so to all Canadians I guess, he really meant, only to those who would
vote for him. Therefore his is showing disrespect to the Democratic rights of those Canadians,
whose judgment tells them not to trust such a PM, and vote for a PM of their choice. He
is really a clone of the 'bush' administration and his cronys! According to Mr. Harper, "The
end justifies the means"!
He is trying to malign M. Dion, a man, who portrays what Stephen Harper had made
himself out to be. M. Dion's credentials are above-board, and he shall prove it all the way
to the top!
Despite the snarling adds, taken out of context, will in no way diminish M. Dion's character,
and it will prove more harmful to the one who instigated them. One does not win by belittling
another. It is poor sportsmanship.

Hello Nik,
Although it is a very beautiful day out here, it is apparent that our Provincial elections are
not interesting to the rest of this Country, and even I am losing interest...It seems that we
are at a political low, when it comes to Canadian elections, and is evident why...
This is why I thought that I would take the time to share what I have borrowed from the
Mtl. Gazette this week-end and authored by Horace Greeley: It's the Quote of the Day...

"I AM THE INFERIOR OF ANY MAN WHOSE RIGHTS I TRAMPLE UNDERFOOT". by Horace Greeley),
which I thougth to be quite appropo in our recent discussions about maligning others
in political campaigns, etc...

I also like this one liner from Jay Leno: "IF GOD HAD INTENDED FOR US TO VOTE,
HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN US SOME CANDIDATES"!

Cheers,
blos