Angry in the Great White North

The Conservatives have unveiled three ads that I think are devastating. You can find them on the CPC video page, or check them out below:

A lot of people will complain about negative campaigning. Let's make a distinction here. These are critical ads. They use facts and quotes to highlight the weaknesses in the opposition. That's fair game.

What's especially fair is using Stephane Dion's own whining response to Michael Ignatieff to show what sort of leader he will be -- unable to take criticism, easily offended, and someone whose first instinct is to avoid taking responsibility. Childish, really.

These ads do not indulge in fearmongering. They do not suggest that the Liberals will turn Canada into a police state, or that Canadians will be dying in large numbers for lack of health care, or that someone is going to point a gun at your face and kill you should the Liberals get into power. It was the Liberal Party that ran exactly these sorts of ads in the last two election cycles predicting these outcomes if the Conservatives were elected.

Of course, nothing of the sort has happened, nor will it. Those Liberal ads lacked any real information. Just wild speculation combined with emotional manipulation.

The Conservatives want you to make an informed choice. The Liberals want you to run scared.

Tell me which party treats you with more respect, regardless of what you think of their actual policies. Of course, Stephane Dion would probably say that my analysis of these approaches to so-called "negative ads" is unfair.