Round One of the Ad Wars Goes To ...

New Liberal attack ads suggest the Grits have more substance, but less money, than the Conservatives.

Sun Media’s Michael Den Tandt does an excellent job of breaking down the Conservative’s “one-two punch” pre-election campaign strategy. Many pundits were surprised to see the Tories unleash a series of vicious attack ads earlier this week, seemingly confirming many Canadians’ suspicions that they’re a bunch of meanies. But Den Tandt says the ads make perfect sense in light of Harper’s appearance on CBC this week. The negative TV ads hit hard and play to the Conservatives right-wing base, while the CBC interview was “targeted at different voters — better informed, closer to the centre. Here Harper is reasoned, relaxed, smiling … he takes the abortion and capital punishment debates off the table — but in a way that expresses some personal sympathy for the social conservatism of his core supporters.” Taken together the ads and the interview show how Harper’s hoping to win a majority by expanding his appeal towards the centre while keeping his right-wing base. Pretty clever.

Den Tandt’s column was published yesterday, and he wondered why the Liberals were taking the Tory punches lying down. But the Grits came out swinging today with two attack ads of their own, targeting the Conservatives’ $16-billion fighter jet purchase and their plans to cut corporate taxes. “Yes, these are attack ads,” writes the National Post’s Dan Arnold. “But it’s a substantiated attack … Contrast that to the Tory ads which were nothing more than drive-by-smears on Ignatieff.” He judges that the ads will be effective, especially the one addressing tax cuts because giving breaks to corporations while families struggle to recover from the recession will hit home with Canadians. “So, on the whole, a very strong response from the Liberals,” Arnold writes. We in The Mark Newsroom are inclined to agree, as the spots re-position the Liberals as a party of substance, leaving the Conservatives looking petty by contrast.

If there’s a hidden message in the ads however, it’s how badly the Liberals are outmatched by the Conservatives financially. The Tories produced six 30-second ads, with real-life footage no less. The Libs on the other hand could only manage two 15-second animated ads.