Unlike his two immediate predecessors who unwisely allowed themselves to be negatively defined by relentless campaigns of character assassination from the Conservatives, Bob Rae is making it clear that he’s not going to sit idle and simply allow attack ads by Harper’s mufti-million dollar smear machine to go unanswered. Instead, he’s determined to set the record straight (as he sees it), hit back and fight fire with fire…
As with the video noted in a previous post, this seems to be indicative of a more confident and aggressive communications strategy emanating from the LPC – one that has been sorely lacking for many years now.
Voila! The latest classy attack ad from The Harper Government® (or is it the Conservative Party? Whatever… same difference these days, apparently) aimed at the Quebec “market” accusing Ignatieff and Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe – without even so much as a shred of out-of-context “proof” – of being opposed to tougher penalties for smugglers of illegal immigrants and wanting to transform the country’s border into… a leaky sieve!
Now you don’t possibly think that the Conservateur could be cynically pandering to the more xenophobic elements of their rural “base” in Quebec, do you? Perish the thought!
Oh sure, I guess that I could have posted some of the vituperative new Harper Party attack ads that were rolled out online yesterday morning along with some critical commentary without too much effort, but fortunately, I was far too busy with other “real world” things to bother. Besides, my initial reaction upon viewing them was one of “déjà vu all over again”… I seriously wondered if the dismal tropes in their formulaic adverts had simply been recycled from several years ago and slightly re-packaged for the benefit of those with head injuries or short-term memory problems.
So, rather than dwell on the dull malice of the latest corrosive CPC nonsense; instead, here’s a digital short from SNL because… well, for no reason actually, other than it’s amusing.
Would it possible do you think for the Conservatives to get some NEW material or at least a fresh set of ideas that may actually be worthy of comment? Same goes for the other parties too! Until then, it seems we’re stuck with a feeble political discourse that amounts to little more than Pee Wee’s infamous “I know you are, but what am I?”
Note: For reasons unknown, the video has been “removed by the user” since this was posted.
You know, some days you’ve just got to be amazed at the galling douchebaggery of Conservatives. Witness this latest attack video from ToryBoy1 (not to be confused with ToryBoy69):
Freeze-frame at 20 seconds in and you get this:
Actually the screen-cap for the video, funnily enough.
Now, you might at first glance think this was ripped from a news story, or at the very least an editorial, by the Kingston Whig Standard, right? Wrong. In fact, it turns out to be nothing more than a Letter to the Editor from a Mr. Glen Parker, a legionnaire who resides in Gananoque, Ontario (apparently).
Mr. Parker is a rather frequent letter writer, having mailed off other epistles to the local Kingston paper, as well as the Toronto Star telling people to quit whining and asking their government for assistance when they get in legal trouble overseas and warning of the dangers that might befall the country if the “looney left” (his quotes) “gets its hands on the purse-strings” of the nation.
“A major cyclical downturn, but nothing that requires major government intervention”
Well, that’s what “Grit Girl” would have people think, with this new and expanded version of a previous attack video, that comes on the heels of today’s figures reporting that unemployment hit a 7-year high, with the loss of another 61,300 bringing the number cut since October 2008 (back when there was no recession, remember) to 357,000 jobs cut, or 2.1 per cent of the work force.
But oh-oh! Here’s what Harper said in context on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS program at the beginning of March:
I’m not generally a Keynesian, but when you have the kind of drops in economic activity we’re having and interest rates near zero and financial sectors, the banking sector not translating investments into saving or savings into investments, you have no choice but to have the government move in, observe those funds and put them to work. Now, one can criticize is it fast enough? Is it effective? Are the long-run benefits sufficient?
But I think the fiscal stimulus does have to be done and obviously, there’s going to have to be major non-market fixes to the financial sector and to the housing sector. We’re just fortunate in Canada we don’t have to do those kinds of policies because they’re fraught with enormous long-run danger in terms of creating moral hazard, risks to future economic decisions. But we haven’t had to do that. As you said, we don’t have the bank failure in Canada and we don’t have on the housing side, we have also regulation on government housing insurance that’s prevented sub-prime type of situation. We have a cyclical downturn but nothing that requires major government intervention.”
So, is it fair to take a remark the PM made about the housing and financial sector and attach it to the mounting tide of unemployment? Especially so when the government is, in fact, taking the plunge into unprecedented deficit spending that could fairly be argued represents a “major government intervention.”
Maybe this sort of thing is pleasing to Liberals and I suppose fair is fair given how the Conservatives lie through their teeth with their malicious attack ads, but I’ve never much subscribed to the notion that two wrongs make a right.
Looks to me like “Grit Girl” is the one “making it up as [she] goes along” with this particular video.
First of all, it should be pointed out that Senator Nancy Ruth — the “Conservative politician” being ridiculed here — was actually appointed in 2005 by former Prime Minister Paul Martin. She was a Progressive Conservative (a “Red Tory” if you will) and is a long-time social activist, feminist, and philanthropist. Prior to her appointment, she founded several women’s organizations in Canada, including the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, the Canadian Women’s Foundation and a women’s studies chair at Mount Saint Vincent University. She’s a member of the Order of Canada and also happens to be Canada’s first (and only?) openly lesbian senator.
Second, regarding to the allegation that the Conservatives “don’t like the poor” because of Senator Ruth’s suggestion that geese be shot and fed to the needy, making such a logical inference is absurd. In fact, the National Post article to which the video is linked notes that: “In 1997, a report commissioned by a multi-municipality committee in the Toronto area said culling geese and donating the meat to local [food] banks may be the answer to the growing problem of the mess on beaches and in parks.” Many experts don’t seem to think that this is the most effective approach (“egg oiling” and other methods are preferred), but that’s beside the point. Also, there’s nothing wrong with eating goose meat, although in my experience, it’s a lot more trouble than it’s worth.
Third, if it’s alleged that the Conservatives “don’t like a proud national Canadian symbol, either” because of Senator Ruth’s remarks, then the Liberals can’t think much of snow geese, because in 2000 the government proposed culling half a million of that species as part of a wildlife management program to preserve their arctic habitat.
Fourth, hunting doesn’t necessarily make a person “gun crazy” — if indeed that’s the implication of the little zinger in the video in this regard.
Finally, mentioning that the Canada Goose was “once an endangered species” is beyond laughable. Yes, over a century ago it had been hunted almost to the point of extinction, but that’s hardly the case today. The damn things are now ubiquitous to the point of being a nuisance. And furthermore, as Senator Ruth correctly pointed out, they are, in fact, a health hazard. In addition to being a carrier of pathogens that can infect livestock and domesticated animals, their droppings contain unique forms of E. coli that are more toxic to the digestive system than other forms of this bacterium. By the way, just 50 geese can produce two and a half tons of excrement in a year.
Gee, do ya think “Grit Girl” is a Liberal operative of some sort? Or maybe even a certain “private citizen” perhaps? She, and I use that term hesitantly, was pretty quick off the mark with a fairly slick new video slamming Harper’s economic action plan that utilizes Statcan figures from this morning’s release of the unemployment toll for February. And there’s even a full-blown website derisively mocking the Harper stimulus plan, of which it’s a component.
If so — and it’s just pure speculation on my part, although I’m certain that Sherlock Janke will be ferreting around to get confirmation — I guess the Liberals can hardly complain about Conservative attack ads, as it seems they’ve gotten the jump on things with this campaign, albeit in a rather stealthy way. Furthermore, (again… it’s just a guess on my part, remember) but this would be a tad hypocritical, no? Considering that Ignatieff has vigorously denounced the Conservatives for playing partisan political games in the midst of an economic crisis, I mean.
Note: The video has been killed by the pinheads at CTV/Globemedia due to some unspecified copyright violation. But I’m leaving it there anyway. If a new version comes along (which I’d fully expect in short order) I’ll swap that in.
I’m sure everyone not living under a rock has heard the NDP’s radio ads that were launched immediately after Ignatieff announced that he would be supporting the Conservative government’s deeply “flawed” budget without any significant amendments whatsoever.
Sadly for the NDP, almost nobody outside their traditional base of support will take these ads seriously. Aside from presumably attempting to define Ignatieff as a failure, what are they really saying? Jack Layton is “the only leader strong enough to stand up to Harper and get us through this economic crisis” the ad laughably claims. As if.
All Layton has done here is to demonstrate that, rather than putting average families first, as the ad implies, the NDP leader is far more interested in tooting his own horn and attacking his erstwhile coalition partner because his one chance to ever be in government has slipped away from him forever.
Here’s a negative web attack ad from the Conservatives. Well, at least I assume they’re responsible for this effort as the production values seem a bit too slick for an amateur job, although it’s not authorized and doesn’t mention the Conservatives by name.
Is it possible that the ad was made by “Lisa” the “23 year old animation student living in Canada” who had to “make a youtube channel for class” and only joined YouTube yesterday? Her sole other video is a Carrie Bradshaw interview, but maybe that’s just there to throw people off and give it the look of verismilitude. I love the faux innocent comment that accompanies the video:
Stephane Dion has a new policy advisor: Bob Rae! Yes. That Bob Rae.
My parents hated Bob Rae when I was a kid and I couldn’t believe it when my dad called to tell me he was now helping the Liberals.
I dunno, does that sound a little contrived, or am I just being overly conspiratorial here?
Whatever the case, it’s quite the hit job. I especially like the almost subliminal whispering of “dangerous” and “risky” in the background (listen very carefully) which are then more forthrightly announced at the end. Anyway as “Lisa” would say “Toodles!”
I have to say that this anti-Obama hit job is a tremendous piece of work.
Step One: Loading money Step Two: Call for new government Step Three: Infect the media, infect the press, infect the internet Step Four: Spread platitude Step Five: Suppress reasons Step Six: Destroy all evidence
Red Tory v.3.0.3 