I’ve been an election skeptic for nearly five years now.
In that time we’ve had predictions almost weekly that a federal election was just around the corner. As I’ve appeared on radio and television in that time the most common question has been about the timing of the next election.
As recently as last week I was saying that I didn’t think we would have an election this spring – unless that is the Conservatives unloaded a pile of election-style ads. Those ads are now out and we are likely heading to the polls this spring.
The first ad attempts to show Stephen Harper in a positive light as a leader that gets things done but there are also several others – five in English and four in French in total. The other ads take aim at all the opposition parties, essentially killing off any possibility of the Conservatives finding a dance party for the budget.
So now the questions should be – when will the budget be tabled and when will it be voted down?
That is unless these ads work so well that the opposition parties end up beaten up so badly that they find a way to swallow their pride.
Here’s the ad featuring Stephen Harper at work. It has shades of Reagan’s Morning in America from 1984
Here’s one of the English ads on Ignatieff, it uses Ignatieff’s own words on the coalition against him. Notice the difference in the tone of the narration between the Harper ad and the Ignatieff one.
The Tories even target Jack Layton in what I see as the ad signalling the beginning of an election campaign. The theme again is coalition.
In French the Tories repeat the ad in favour of Harper and also take aim at Ignatieff but in a different way. Using well know Liberals including Justin Trudeau and Denis Coddere they question his leadership
And finally they take aim at the Bloc for being in favour of gangs, and soft of immigration using the image of the MV Sun Sea
