For several weeks now, fiery attack ads aimed squarely at leader of the official opposition Michael Ignatieff have peppered the evening programming of Canada’s major broadcasters. Prime Minister Steven Harper and the Conservatives have launched a series of 30-second ads that question Ignatieff’s commitment to Canada and portray his return to home soil as an easy power grab.
The new Liberal leader has spent well over 30 years working abroad in England and the United States, and his foray into the Canadian political scene has been well-received by members of the battered Liberal party, but condemned by Conservative critics.
Recent polling conducted by the Toronto Star and Angus Reid shows the Liberals’ popularity among voters steadily rising, but only ahead of the Conservatives by two per cent. Still, that represents a significant upswing for the Liberals from several months ago, when they trailed in the polls and lacked any formidable leadership. The public may be slow to warm up to the new Liberal star, but Harper has more troubles of his own. Opinion polls now suggesting that the ad blitz has hurt Harper’s favourability. Voters are sending him a message: sleazy character assaults say more about Harper than his opponent.
The allegations put forth in the videos suggest that Michael Ignatieff is entirely unsuited for the position of Prime Minister because he has lived outside the country for over 30 years. On the surface, it seems like a fair argument, but the underlying message is much more venomous. To debase an individual for seeking opportunity and further advancing one’s academic or professional career abroad is a slap in the face to thousands of Canadians who have studied and worked internationally. To suggest that Ignatieff is detached from Canadian affairs is dishonest. And above all, to insinuate that Ignatieff is somehow less patriotic or less connected to his national origin is insulting and truly below-the-belt.
Unfortunately, these types of insidious political schemes don’t come as a surprise to many seasoned voters and political observers, who have come to expect engaging and meaningful public discourse being perverted or sidestepped altogether by partisan attacks. The easiest way to distract the public from a sound discussion about policy is to smear one’s opponent with manufactured lies, launching a campaign of misinformation and mistrust.
Nowhere has this strategy been better exploited than in the United States. South of the border, attack ads are the cornerstone of any political campaign, and have often contributed to the outcome of elections and policy initiatives. They were successful in defeating health care reform in 1994, and in derailing the presidential campaigns of Democratic contenders Michael Dukakis in 1988 and John Kerry in 2004. Just last year, then-candidate Barack Obama was subject to multi-million-dollar Republican attack ads that labeled him as an elitist, terrorist-loving Antichrist, playing into the racial bigotries and suspicions that have underscored the American psyche for centuries. Despite these juvenile (and often baseless) critiques repeated over and over again in the media, the election of Barack Obama demonstrated that negative advertising has quickly lost its desired effect, especially among young, tech-savvy voters, Obama’s most enthusiastic constituency.
Ignatieff’s early support for the Iraq invasion and certain elements of harsh interrogation for detained suspects are troubling, but could certainly be clarified in a good-natured, spirited dialogue. Attack ads are not on the verge of disappearance, but political capital would be better invested in open forums and online interactions that have gained momentum in the United States, and that would engage Canada’s own young population.
Stephen Harper should take notice of the changing tide in the United States. The Prime Minister shouldn’t be setting standards for Canadian patriotism, but rather appealing to Canadians’ appetite for more goodwill and transparency from the government. Ignatieff brings a wealth of outside experience and international acclaim, and should not be discounted because of that.
