Michael Ignatieff‘s Liberals are going on the offensive, rolling out ads that accuse Stephen Harper of putting Parliament on ice to cover up Canada’s handling of Afghan detainees.
The Grit ad blitz follows a slew of editorials chastising the Conservatives and the emergence of an online group of some 140,000 Canadians who oppose Harper’s decision to shut down Parliament until early March.
The move signals the Liberals are ready to borrow a page from the Conservative play book–running advertisements designed to play on doubts in the minds of voters.
The print, radio and Internet advertisements–there are no pricey TV spots–form part of a broader strategy to portray the Liberals as hard-working representatives ready to serve Canadians whether the Conservatives are around or not.
Liberal MPs and senators plan to return to work Jan. 25, the date Parliament had been scheduled to resume before the prime minister pulled the plug.
Ignatieff said they will hold public hearings on various issues and conduct pre-budget consultations until the Winter Olympic Games begin mid-next month in Vancouver.
“We’ll be on the Hill earning our keep,” he told The Canadian Press on Sunday.
A Liberal print ad features a Tory-blue sign hung outside Parliament Hill that reads: “Closed out of self-interest,” with Stephen Harper’s signature.
A radio spot accuses the prime minister of shuttering Parliament to squelch discussion of front-page issues including allegations that detainees were routinely tortured after Canada handed them over to Afghan jailers.
“He doesn’t want to have to answer questions about torture coverups, climate change, unemployment,” a male voiceover says over ominous-sounding music. “Stephen Harper did this secretly because he has something to hide.”
In trying to stoke doubts about Harper’s motives, the Liberals are turning the tables on the Conservatives.
When Stephane Dion assumed the Liberal leadership, Harper’s team bombarded the public with ads that painted him as weak and indecisive, charging the bespectacled former professor was “not a leader.”
Once Ignatieff took the Grit reins, Conservative ads attacked the longtime Harvard University academic as an arrogant, globetrotting dilettante who is “just visiting” Canada.
