At Home in Hespeler

OK, we’ve all seen the Stephen Harper assassination picture and can all agree it’s harmless: not like they had a bird pooping on him or any such major indignity. It was stupid, and the collective MSM yawn in lieu of howls of indignity, as they do every time a Conservative speaks ill of a Liberal, was embarrassing for them. Pity they don’t have the common sense anymore to realize they’re embarrassed.

Remember this picture next time you hear howls of Stephen Harper being a mean spirited, nasty bully.

But the Stephen Harper assassination fantasy/crime, and the Stephen Harper arming a cow (in the not with a gun context) picture aren’t the only graven images in the Liberal Party Stephen Harper Photoshop contest and hate-athon currently underway at Liberanos.ca. There are six finalists now showing and they range from the childish (Harper as Waldo, Harper in a bunny suit) to reasonably clever (Something rotten in the state of Denmark), to the dammed racist if a Republican did it with their President (the monkeys) to the disturbing: one with Harper riding a bomb, and this one

Seeing as Hitler pictures are so darned hard to find and David in Ottawa only had 45 or 50 seconds to do his entry, a quick slice of Harper into the Communist Party poster, because we all know how vile the communists are. Isn’t that clever? Why there’s Lenin. And Stalin and Mao, the two worst mass murderers in the history of the world. Oh, and look, there’s Uncle Fidel in the back…

Uncle Fidel?

Wait a minute, that uncle Fidel? Virtually the only world leader to make an appearance at the last Michael Ignatieff’s funeral? I thought the Liberals liked him. As for Mao, wasn’t last weeks big scandal that Harper can’t get along with Chinese Communists? In fact, if we imagine a party like the one pictured above, wouldn’t MM Chrétien and Trudeau be the Canadians most likely to RSVP in the affirmative?

What exactly is the message the Liberal Party is trying to send with this picture? That Stephen Harper is really a closet Liberal? Well, he did jack up the deficit, increase spending and stuff the senate? But it seems an odd message for the Liberals to be putting out none the less.

Maybe the message is they didn’t think this contest through very well.

Silly Liberals Castro, Chrétien, Communist Party, Conservative Party, Fidel, Hitler, Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald, Lenin, Liberal, Mao, Michael Ignatieff, puffin, STalin, Stephen Harper, Trudeau, Where's Waldo

The Conservative Party took a different tack against Michael Ignatieff than Stéphane Dion.With Dion, they attacked right away, not giving him a chance to get comfortable in his job and in the process, defined him before he could define himself.

With Michael Ignatieff, they seemed to be holding back, let Ignatieff define himself. When they finally released some negative ads yesterday, some of the Tory faithful said, at last. But the original strategy was, in my opinion, effective. The more Canadians see Ignatieff, the less they will like him. Let the Canadian people begin to have their doubts, save your response until an election, then release it all at once: a little shock and awe politics.  That’s what I thought they were doing, and that’s what I thought would be effective.

Then yesterday, the Conservatives released this ad:

Know what I got out of this ad: Tory Times are Tough Times. Who approved an ad that had the central message from The Liberals negative ads running right through the middle of it? And who puts out a negative attack ad accusing the other guy of using negative attack ads?

But even after those blunders, what is the main theme of this ad? Ignatieff wasn’t in Canada all those years. For some people, me included, that could be construed as a positive.  A little international man about town would be a nice change from the base provincialism that’s grinding the gears off so much in this country.  And it sure beats the professional politicians that are running the country into the ground now.

There’s a fair amount to dislike about Michael Ignatieff, very little substance to his politics among them.  There was not one of those reasons on display for this ad, and that’s why it’s simply not good enough.

h/t Gerry

Politicians acting badly attack ads, Canada, Conservative, Liberal, Michael Ignatieff, Stephane Dion, Tory Times are Tough Times