The Tories (who have a lot of money to spend on such things) have created an ad campaign that tries to sell the fact that Grit leader Stephane Dion is not decisive enough to do the job. It would appear they’re trying to raise the specter of the Tories’ greatest asset from the last round: Mr. Dithers, a.k.a. former Liberal PM Paul Martin. From my perspective, the party machinery is trying to strengthen their base before the official campaigning starts. Once the election is called they can come out with their focused five (or whatever number they choose) priorities message and appear more positive. And, the truth is, it will probably work out very well for them. That’s regrettable, but that doesn’t mean much in politics.

There’s been some commentary about how this is an American-style campaign. I disagree that the Americans have a monopoly on this stuff; I think this is a very Canadian-style campaign. The only thing that might make this an American-style campaign is if the Conservative Party were to run these ads (and only these or similar ads) during the official election period. Negative personal attacks have been common enough in every election I’ve experienced. The only difference in the US elections is that down south nearly every ad is a personal attack whereas here in Canada the parties seem to prefer mixing in more of the warm and fuzzy positive messages.

I don’t disagree with the fact that past negative campaign ads have ad little or even negative effects, but there have also been other factors at play. For example, in 1993 I think the Tories were cooked no matter what they did.

All of that aside though, I still hate these kinds of ads; they always strike me as incredibly juvenile and arrogant. Like a lot of political statements and Question Period “questions” it tends to come out sounding like a middle school playground. Did too, did not, did too, etc. And, on top of that, these particular ads come across very elitist. That is, the common folk are not able to figure out on their own whether Dion is a good leader or not. As for the flip-flops: every politician in a prominent position (and who wishes to hold onto said position) has done some flip-flopping. It’s the nature of our system.

Oh well, no one has yet convinced me it’s worth my time and energy to vote whenever they do get around to calling another election.

In the end I’m sort of glad the opposition decided to call out the government today. Ever since the Gomery Report and especially in the last weeks Ottawa has been in election mode. And, once that cat is out it doesn’t go back in the bag easily. So I don’t think the choice was between a holiday election campaign or one in the spring. The choice was between a shorter official election campaign now or electioneering from now until March or April.

With his initiation of the process leading up to the referendum Gordon Campbell is doing a good job of making himself a comfortable spot in the BC political history books. It should be interesting to see what happens.

Hat tip to National Post Headline Scan