Conservative Attack Ads Heighten Election Buzz

A new series of aggressive ads aimed at Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton could signal a spring election.

Let’s get ready to rumble. That’s the message sent by a series of Conservative attack ads that begin airing Monday and call Ignatieff an “opportunistic” leader who will do anything, including ally with separatists, in order to take power. The ads come a week after all four federal leaders went on tours to visit key ridings, a sure sign that election preparations are ramping up. The ads mirror previous commercials the Conservatives ran against Ignatieff that described the former Harvard professor as an expatriate politician “just visiting” Canada. The new ads also take shots at the “blind ambition” of Jack Layton, and urge Canadians not to change courses when the Tories have the Canadian economy on the road to recovery.