An image taken from one of the Liberal attack ads on Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

'Choose Your Canada' is the new campaign slogan

Liberals release series of attack ads

Updated Tue. Jan. 10 2006 8:25 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A barrage of new Liberal attack ads take direct aim at Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

A dozen 30-second advertisements intended for television were posted on the Liberal website Tuesday afternoon, with every ad clearly targeting the Tory leader's policies.

One of the ads however, suggesting Harper would put military personnel in Canadian cities, was later pulled, with the Liberal Party saying the ad had been circulated in error.

Liberal Leader Paul Martin was asked about the vanishing act following the leaders' debates in Montreal and said it was never intended to air publicly.

"All political parties have ads which they don't play,'' said Martin. "That's one that was not played.''

The commercials are some of the most negative yet, suggesting Harper is anti-Atlantic Canada, hides an agenda similar to former Ontario premier Mike Harris and that his rise to leadership was bankrolled by rich American right-wingers.

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Conservatives quickly slammed the ads, calling them a desperate attempt to distract voters from the "Liberal record of scandal."

"As we predicted, the Liberals have stepped up their campaign of negative and personal attacks on our leader and our party," John Reynolds, the Conservative campaign co-chair said. "These latest ads are similar to the ads that we saw in the last campaign – guns pointed into people's faces and dishonest misrepresentations of our policies."

Indeed, voters may be reminded of the 2004 election, when a concerted effort to cast fear into the hearts of voters paid-off, reversing polls and pulling the Liberals into the lead at the last minute.

Media analyst Chris Winsor told CTV Newsnet the ads have the risk of backfiring on the Liberals, because they don't mesh with the new image Canadians have of Harper.

"The campaign Stephen Harper has run and the image he has presented to Canadians through the debates and continually since we've been at this is dramatically opposed to the Stephen Harper presented in these ads," Winsor said.

The new ads each feature unflattering close-ups of Harper's face, are accompanied by war-like drumming, and end with the newly-minted Liberal campaign slogan, "Choose Your Canada."

A female announcer challenges his credibility in a number of areas. Perhaps the most far-flung of the ads suggests conservative U.S. donors played a key role in Harper's career.

"Who paid for Stephen Harper's rise to the head of the party?" asks the voice. "We don't know. He refuses to reveal his donors. What do you suppose he's hiding? We do know he's very popular with right wingers in the U.S. They have money, maybe they helped him. We just don't know. He just won't say."

The ads also attack Harper's position on Atlantic Canada. One ad quotes Harper as saying "unfortunately many people in Atlantic Canada feel that it's only through government favours there will be economic progress."

Another closely compares Harper to former Ontario premier Mike Harris.

"Like Stephen Harper, Mike Harris had a right wing agenda. Remember the Common Sense Revolution? Remember the environmental neglect, the shattered social programs, the crumbling schools and hospitals, the huge deficits? Yeah, that Common Sense Revolution. Do we really want to go down that road again?"

The ads also:

• Attack Harper's comments to an American think-tank in Montreal when he called the U.S. a light and inspiration to Canadians and the world;
• Claim Harper will either have to raise taxes or run a deficit to pay for his campaign promises;
• Claim Harper and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe have a close relationship that will not benefit national unity;
• Claim that Harper once said Liberal ridings in the west of Canada are either dominated by recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada;
• Report comments Harper made to an American audience, advising them not to feel bad for Canada's unemployed, who receive "generous social assistance and unemployment assistance," and that Canada is content to become a second-tier social country;
• Quote a U.S. newspaper editorial that described Harper as the most pro-U.S. leader in the western world.

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