Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals released two new attack ads today aimed at attacking Harper’s corrupt handling of public office and reaching out to Canadians to be the voice of a new direction. Each ad is 30 seconds long and either depicts news clippings showing Harper’s scandals or, as a novelty, displaying himself in his own ad.
This isn’t new in Canadian politics, in 2006, Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party waged the war against Paul Martin’s Liberals when the sponsorship scandal came out in the open. In their slew of ads, they featured ads attacking Paul Martin on accountability and integrity while bringing ads featuring Harper explaining the changes he wanted to make.
The new ads can be seen on the Liberal YouTube Page or on Michael Ignatieff’s Facebook page. They come at a time when a spring election seems imminent and we may very well see the 2006 election happen all over again, just this time, it is the Liberals waging the Conservatives.
For the past 5 years, Harper’s Conservatives have been hammering the Liberal’s with personal attack ads. This isn’t a new tactic either. When the Progressive Conservatives in 1993 knew that they were going to lose to Liberal Leader Jean Chretien, they released ads that mocked his ability of being a leader and even his appearance. At the time, the PC’s apologized and distanced themselves from the ads but in the end, Chretien won a majority government.
In 2006, the Liberals used negative attack ads while the Conservatives used similar ads to those that Ignatieff’s Liberals have been using. Even though the Liberals maintained polls that stated them as having a majority government throughout the election, the Conservatives managed to make a break through and took power after the 13-year Liberal administration.
However, if there is one thing that history has taught us, it is that it repeats itself and while the current ads depict a Conservative majority on the horizon, anything can happen at this point, if an election be called.
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