When Liberals attack—or “clarify”—they still somehow mess it up

Between the Conservative ads out earlier this week, the “leaked” NDP memo about how awesomely ready they are, and the news this morning that the Liberal Party has released ads of its own, it’s beginning to look a lot like Writ-mas. The new Grit ads have the shocking novelty of not being terrible or confusing, like some of the 2008-era ads were. In this latest batch, the Liberals are attacking “clarifying” the Conservative record on matters fiscal and military, and so far there isn’t even a single happy-shiny ad in the package to give this a veneer of positivity. (Not that we were taking the lone positive Conservative ad seriously.)

It wouldn’t be the post-Chrétien Liberal Party if there weren’t some foul-up, though. Sure enough, this morning, one of the French-language ads had to be pulled and re-uploaded to YouTube when the Conservatives pointed out a glaring spelling error in it. It’s a minor stumble in the grand scheme of things, and it was fixed quickly, but we can’t help but think of the Liberal Party Express Bus from last summer—the one that broke down on day one. We don’t expect our political parties to be mechanics, as well, but we do expect them to use spell-check.

With all this fuss in the past week, it’s looking more and more likely that Ontarians will indeed be going through three elections in one 12-month span (though hope for deliverance springs eternal). We can’t say that doesn’t fill us with a little glee, but even political junkies can OD sometimes.

• Liberals strike back with ads on fighter jets, corporate tax cuts [Globe and Mail]
• Liberals ‘attack problems’ in new ads [CBC]
• John Ivison: Liberals position themselves to left of NDP [National Post]
• Grits launch new attack ads against Tories [Toronto Sun]