OTTAWA – The NDP is trying to do to Michael Ignatieff what the Conservatives did to Stéphane Dion – convince voters he’s weak, ineffectual and not a leader.
New Democrats unleashed the first in a series of radio ads Thursday lambasting the newly minted Liberal leader for propping up Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government.
The radio spots are not quite as damning as the relentless barrage of radio, TV and print ads fired at the hapless Dion, who was never able to overcome the Tory depiction of him as a spineless nerd.
But the NDP ads drip with withering scorn for Ignatieff’s decision to allow the federal budget to pass, albeit with conditions.
“Some things just don’t change,” intones a woman in one ad.
“Another Conservative budget rubber stamped by another Liberal leader. It’s official: Michael Ignatieff failed his first big test as Liberal leader. He’s thrown his lot in with Stephen Harper.”
The ad portrays NDP Leader Jack Layton as the only political leader who can be trusted to look out for average families.
“Jack Layton’s the only leader strong enough to stand up to Harper.”
The two English ads are to be followed by two French radio ads next week and are part of a broader effort by Layton to portray Ignatieff as a Harper clone and the NDP as the only real national opposition to the Conservatives.
The party has rebranded its website to reflect that message: newdemocratopposition.ca.
The ads were released just one day after Ignatieff announced that Liberals will allow the budget to pass, provided the government tables three progress reports this year on the document’s implementation and effectiveness. The Tories have agreed to do so.
Until Ignatieff’s announcement Wednesday, he was nominally a partner with Layton in an agreement to defeat the government and replace it with a Liberal-NDP coalition.
The speed with which the NDP ads hit the airwaves suggests Layton expected Ignatieff – always cool to the coalition idea – would not abide by the agreement struck by his predecessor, Dion.
Ignatieff has said his budget decision amounts to putting the Harper government on probation, effectively giving Liberals three more chances to defeat the budget should the Tories fail to deliver.
But Layton derided that as a “fig leaf” to cover up the fact that Ignatieff, like Dion before him, won’t vote against the government for fear of forcing an election. By his count, this marks the 45th time in three years that the Liberals have propped up the government in a confidence matter.
The first wave of radio ads is to be aired in Newfoundland, northern Ontario and southwestern Ontario, with Quebec ads to follow next week. They are aimed at regions in which NDP strategists believe voters are most likely to be disappointed in the budget and the Liberals’ failure to defeat it.
Liberal MP Bob Rae dismissed the NDP ad campaign as a “sign of desperation.”
“I think it will have about as much impact as last year’s snow. I think it’s irrelevant. They’re wasting their money.”
Rae said the ads will not influence voters because “the more people get to know Mr. Ignatieff, the more they like him.”
Liberals said the same thing when the Tories unleashed their attack ads against Dion, who eventually admitted the ads created a “caricature” that he was never able to dispel.
Liberals have been bracing for another Tory advertising onslaught since Ignatieff was installed as leader early last month. But no attack has been forthcoming and a party spokesman said Thursday that the Tories “aren’t releasing any ads at this time.”
Political scientist Tom Flanagan, a former Harper chief of staff, said the Tories would be well advised to refrain from attack ads against Ignatieff any time soon. Such ads would be jarringly inconsistent with the conciliatory tone Harper has adopted of late to get Liberal approval for the budget.
Flanagan noted that Harper alternated last fall between conciliation and trying to “slit the throat” of opposition parties and he vacillated over the seriousness of the recession and the probability of running deficits. After so many mood swings, Flanagan said Harper needs to “rehabilitate himself.”
“There’s just been so many shifts in the last few months that Harper’s got to re-establish some kind of reputation for steadiness. I think a Conservative ad campaign against Ignatieff right now would kind of work against that.”
Flanagan said Ignatieff’s weak point so far appears to be his “arrogant, condescending” demeanour, which he suspects Tory ads will eventually target. But he said the public needs to see more of it before the Tories can try to exploit it.
