Back to work (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 31, 2011 at 5:02 PM - 8 Comments

A statement from Conservative backbencher Phil McColeman, tabled shortly before Question Period this afternoon.

Mr. Speaker, today the House resumes sitting and I can proudly say that on this side of the House Conservative members are eager and ready to get to work for Canadians. This work includes moving on important crime bills that remain before the public safety committee. It is my hope that our eagerness is shared by opposition members across the way. Unfortunately, I am afraid that it already seems to be business as usual for some Liberals. Today the member for Ajax—Pickering is again sticking up for criminals and promoting the failed prison farm system, a program with a dismal rate of success of less than 1%, which loses millions of tax dollars each year. I call on the Liberal Party public safety critic and his coalition partners to work with us to get results for law-abiding Canadians and victims and to stop putting criminals’ rights before those of victims.

An equally objective statement from Liberal Rodger Cuzner after the jump. Continue…

Reports of Laurie Hawn's support for attack ads were greatly exaggerated

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 31, 2011 at 9:03 AM - 12 Comments

Over the weekend, CTV reported that Laurie Hawn was defending the Conservative side’s one! day! only! attack ads. On Sunday, Mr. Hawn took to Twitter to clarify his feelings.

CTV cherry picks my remarks. Didn’t support attack ads. Said they’re not my style and don’t pay attention to them.

Attack ad aficionados needn’t fret about the disappearance of the two clips in question as a quick check of the Conservative Party of Canada’s official YouTube page shows plenty of similar adverts are still available. Indeed, of the 30 videos posted there, 22 concern the opposition parties. Nineteen of those are specific to Mr. Ignatieff.

Too good to last

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, January 28, 2011 at 3:27 PM - 29 Comments

If you scroll down down to yesterday’s post on those new Conservative ads—”The no context zone“—and click on the video, you will receive the following message.

This video has been removed by the user.

Democracy, here and there

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, January 28, 2011 at 10:29 AM - 74 Comments

On the same day his party releases an ad declaring that an election would “jeopardize our recovery” from recession, Stephen Harper comments on the protests in Tunisia and Egypt.

“Canada supports the transition in Tunisia,” Harper said. “We support the democratic development that is taking place there and obviously want to see that proceed positively.” As for uprisings in Egypt, he said: “We want to see democratic development in that country as well and we’re very supportive of that. At the same time, we want to see that happen in a way that is peaceful and non-violent.”

The no context zone

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 4:20 PM - 138 Comments

The Conservatives have produced two more clips, these ones based primarily on the fact that Michael Ignatieff once used the word “yes” in a public setting.

The other is here. For the original context of Mr. Ignatieff’s affirmative comment, go to the 3:10 mark of this video. It’s unclear whether Mr. Harper has ever uttered the same word aloud, but in his recent interview with the CBC he did say “that’s right.”

Can you trust a man who doesn't drink his coffee from a Beatles mug?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 17, 2011 at 11:10 AM - 32 Comments

The Conservatives don’t want an election, but are willing to start the campaign here and now with half a dozen new adverts. In the first clip, we learn that to protect Canada from European rioters, Stephen Harper is sitting alone at his desk all day, doing a lot of paperwork.

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 9:18 AM - 0 Comments

The Green party wants to ban political advertising from television.

Many countries ban the use of television advertising for political parties, including the U.K., South Africa, Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland, Chile, Sweden, and Ireland. Attack ads are widely recognized to discourage democratic participation and cost an incredible amount of money, creating an enormous imbalance between the different parties.

In order to have open, fair and participatory election campaigns, Canada should ban the use of television for political advertising before and during the writ periods. Current Elections Canada rules limit political party spending on television ads during a writ period, but there are no controls at all on television ads outside a writ period. “We should rely on free access to the airwaves, organized by networks to allow candidates to explain their own views and policies, not attack the character and personal foibles of the opposition,” said May.

Elizabeth May expands on her concerns here.

Twas ever thus

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 1, 2010 at 11:21 AM - 0 Comments

Reason magazine puts together a pair of attack ads for the 1800 presidential election.

One could likely do the same with our own history of nastiness. Or one could simply refer to the occasions—at least two that I’ve read of—wherein verbal exchanges in the House prompted challenges to a duel.

Brian Jean Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 12:12 PM - 29 Comments

Conservative MP Brian Jean laments for our discourse.

Jean admits he doesn’t like the current attack ads his party is running on TV which call Igantieff’s character and motivations into question. ”But they seem to work,” he says. “I don’t like them, but that’s not my job.”

(The story in question is not yet posted on the newspaper’s website. So we shall have to take that not disinterested blogger’s word for it for now.)

No prize for making Parliament work

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 12:26 PM - 104 Comments

Michael Ignatieff talks to the Star.

Ignatieff said he was immediately struck by the political irony – there were the Harper Conservatives, lashing out at the New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois, on the eve of needing their support in yesterday’s confidence vote in the Commons.

And the Liberal leader realized, once again, that this is what happens to parties who support the Conservatives in this fragile minority Parliament.

“While you’re propping the government up, they’re running ads saying, `He’s just in it for himself.’ How stupid do they think I am?” Ignatieff said in an interview with the Star yesterday, immediately after the Liberals, for the first time in nearly four years, voted against the government in a confidence vote.

The revolution will eventually end up on YouTube

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 2:16 AM - 18 Comments

This footage is apparently a couple months old, but it is indeed Michael Ignatieff standing up in public and saying things about stuff—specifically arctic sovereignty, agriculture, Conservative attack ads, Afghanistan, nuclear energy, firearms and pharmacare.

Do try to contain yourselves.

Cowboy Iggy

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 9:44 PM - 35 Comments

Michael Ignatieff has a few things to say at the Stampede.

“I’m in politics to defeat the Bloc Quebecois with real arguments, rather than slurs and vicious . . . personal attacks. This is unworthy … I will never descend to that level of attack because when we do this, we fragment our country, we divide our country. We create suspicion and fear and hurt, where there has to be healing.”

More from CP and Canwest.

Forget bribing Quebecers with their own money, scare them instead

By Philippe Gohier - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 6:00 PM - 39 Comments

I guess the Conservatives figure they can’t do much worse in Quebec so they might as well go whole-hog on the gutter politics. There’s really no other explanation for their decision to mail a bunch of brain-dead pamphlets to constituents in Bloc-heavy ridings accusing Duceppe’s troops of being “opposed to the protection of children,” a reference to the Bloc’s opposition to a private member’s bill that would set a mandatory minimum sentence of 18 years for those convicted of trafficking in minors:

On the first page, we see a young girl and slogans. The back page features an empty swing seat in a park. In the distance, a man is walking away, holding a child by the hand. All of it is set against a murky background that leaves the rest to the imagination.

There’s already a chasm between the Tories and Quebecers when it comes to all this “tough on crime” nonsense. Trying to goad the Bloc into a spitting match over who wants to send people to jail for the longest amount of time isn’t likely to bridge it. Quite simply, the Bloc has no reason to take the bait. Continue…

I'm Stephen Harper and I approved this message

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 4:53 PM - 99 Comments

The Prime Minister tries to explain his party’s attack ads.

Q: But let me ask you this, how closely do those ads and the messages in those ads reflect your own personal view of Michael Ignatieff and his motives?

A: Well as you know that campaign, the source of that campaign is strictly Mr. Ignatieff’s own words and own record so he’s the one who has to answer questions on that.

Q: But do you think he’s just visiting?

A: As I say those ads are built around his own record, his own words, on his own motives, and his own statements on the country and those are the questions he’ll have to answer.

Q: But do the ads reflect your view as the leader of the party?

A: As I say the ads allow Mr. Ignatieff to speak for himself. Continue…

Out-of-touch elitist academics debate attack ads

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 12:44 AM - 28 Comments

A half hour of discussion on Monday night’s episode of The Agenda.

Stephen Harper's rules for political advertising

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 11:57 AM - 36 Comments

1. Make sure they’re truthful. 2. Make sure they’re relevant. 3. Make sure they’re not too personal.

If the latest run of adverts is backfiring for any of these reasons, don’t say he didn’t warn you.

Today in slurs

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 1, 2009 at 1:38 PM - 47 Comments

Why the Conservative campaign against Michael Ignatieff is vaguely Stalinist.

Prime Minister Hulk Hogan

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 29, 2009 at 4:26 PM - 21 Comments

While everyone’s contemplating the etymology of various Br’er Rabbit references, note the phrase Pierre Poilievre used immediately before.

Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we have a leader, a real Canadian leader.

This, you might not realize, is a sly reference to one of the more effective American campaign ads of the 1980s. Clip after the jump. Continue…

Jim Flaherty calls off the attack ads (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 11:01 AM - 7 Comments

Well, not really, but still…

“This is a serious time, not a time for partisan games.”

Taking aim at Ignatieff

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 6 Comments

In the coded language of official Ottawa, they are known as SO31s. It’s a reference to Standing Order 31 of Parliament, which allows that 15 minutes be set aside before question period each day for MPs to stand in the House and make brief remarks about a subject of their choosing. For the most part, members use the time to salute constituents, celebrate charitable causes, mourn sad occasions or pontificate on matters of national or international importance.

When they still had Stéphane Dion to kick around, the Conservative government took great pleasure in mocking the former Liberal leader before he rose to ask another awkwardly worded question of the Prime Minister. And though they waited a few days before doing likewise with Dion’s successor, a steady succession of Conservative backbenchers has been sent up to denigrate Michael Ignatieff or his party since he took the leader’s chair. Indeed, despite an attempt recently by the Speaker to limit personal attacks during this time, government MPs have used more than 100 of these statements to needle the Liberal side in the 12 weeks since Parliament returned in January—a concerted campaign that reached a particular low when Ron Cannan rose on the afternoon of April 20 and attempted to segue from a preceding statement of condolence by Liberal Maurizio Bevilacqua about the deadly Italian earthquake.

Continue…

You sicken me, you inferior kettle

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 4:20 AM - 4 Comments

The problem with the Conservative attack ads against Michael Ignatieff isn’t that they’re rude or desperate—it’s that they’re lame. The party that nailed Stéphane Dion as Prof. Whiny McShrugsalot has hit a sophomore slump in trying to pigeonhole the new guy.

The Tory argument against the Liberal leader boils down to three assertions:

Continue…

Add another name to the unCanadian list

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:22 PM - 41 Comments

Liberal Senator Dennis Dawson wants to extend election spending limits on political advertising to cover at least some of the time between elections. Steven Fletcher, the minister of state for democratic reform is intrigued by the idea and interested in investigating it further unimpressed.

Steven Fletcher, the Conservative minister of state for democratic reform, immediately slammed the bill as an anti-democratic and “un-Canadian” assault on free speech … “It certainly seems like it will severely limit freedom of speech and that’s un-Canadian and hurts our democracy,” Fletcher said in an interview.

They kinda, sorta worked (but not really)

By Philippe Gohier - Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 4:20 PM - 3 Comments

From an Angus-Reid survey on the impact of the Conservatives’ ad campaign on Quebec voters (emphasis mine):

Overall, the ads appear to have no effect on voting intention, although they do have a slight negative impact on attitudes towards Michael Ignatieff. Respondents who had seen the ad were 12 per cent less likely to describe Michael Ignatieff as strong and seven per cent less likely to describe him as open.

Respondents who had seen the Conservative ad were also less likely to say their opinion of Michael Ignatieff had improved (30%, compared to 39% for those who did not see the ad).

Regardless of whether respondents had seen the ad or not, the overall proportion of respondents who say their opinion of Michael Ignatieff has improved in the past four months (35%) is three times higher than any other federal leader (Layton 11%, Duceppe 10%, Harper 4%). The findings suggest that Ignatieff’s positive momentum in Quebec will likely withstand the current ad campaign by the Tories.

Jim Flaherty calls off the attack ads

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 25, 2009 at 4:48 PM - 8 Comments

Well, not really, but still…

“We’re all Canadians. We’re all in this together.”