The Con Regime and the Attack Ad Question

Well as you can imagine, the secure facility where I live is a Con-Free Zone.

No pictures of Stephen Harper are permitted, except those stored in the bowels of my computer.

And his name may not be mentioned in my presence, without written permission.

So you can imagine how horrified I was to come home this week, and find this wedged  in my door.



It was a such a shock I immediately fired my useless bodyguards, or told them they can't borrow my bike for a whole month.

But at least that hideous flyer gave me a good idea of what we can expect from Harper and his Cons, in the run-up to the next election.

Especially the part about "Protecting our children from drugs and criminals."

Because you know what that means eh?

Protecting children from those Liberal judges.

The justice system must put the rights of victims ahead of the rights of criminals. RT if you agree. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/uNMXmKQ8rU
— Stephen Harper (@pmharper) June 24, 2014

Especially the dangerous Chief Justice.

And the junkie Justin Trudeau...



Which is why I was so surprised to see that the Con operatives in the PMO are claiming what they fear the most, are those nasty attack ads from the opposition. 

The Conservative Party is warning its members and supporters of a barrage of attacks targeting Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his governing party in advance of the 2015 federal election. 

“The Liberals and NDP are proposing expensive tax and spend schemes that would reverse all the progress we've made together. And having learned their lesson from past election losses, we believe that they will aggressively attack us as we approach the campaign in 2015,” the email says, with the original final sentence in the paragraph in italics.

And that the Con Death machine has released an attack ad they DIDN'T use against Michael Ignatieff.

Here's an early #TBT & a sneak peek inside our vault of unused ads #cdnpoli #DidntComeBackForYou https://t.co/zhbgN0Ofse
— Conservative Party (@CPC_HQ) June 24, 2014

Which I must admit had me wondering what the Cons are up to? Were they trying to remind their rabid base that attack ads work? Were they trying to convince the rest of us that they only tell the truth? 

Or were they trying to taunt Justin Trudeau into giving up his big gamble?

In an era in which parties stockpile dirt on one another in the political equivalent of mutually assured destruction, Justin Trudeau admits he's taking a gamble by offering to unilaterally disarm. 

But the Liberal leadership front-runner is betting Canadians would rather have a leader who sticks resolutely to the high road than another purveyor of negative attacks ads and the other dark arts of modern politics — like exploiting wedge issues and regional divisions.

Because so far Trudeau's strategy has worked to his advantage. By not replying the Con ads have bounced off him, and have only made the Cons look cheap and dirty.



And they may be hoping that if he does launch attack ads against them, they would then be able to attack him even more viciously than they have to date.

But whatever their twisted reasoning, what all of this tells me is that the Cons are in full campaign mode. The next election may come sooner than most people imagine.

And that we better be ready, and have a full complement of attack ads in our arsenal, because they do work, and they may be needed before the battle is over.

Progressives have been far too soft on the Cons in the past. But we must not make the same mistake this time.

We shall learn from the past.

And use it against him...



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