Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
National

NDP Launches Double-Barrelled Offensive Against Harper's Conservatives

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 14 Jul, 2015 11:46 AM
    OTTAWA — The federal NDP is going on a pre-election offensive aimed at demonstrating it's the party best positioned to defeat Stephen Harper's Conservatives in the looming Oct. 19 election.
     
    It's starting this week with the electoral equivalent of an aerial bombardment — two new, pugnacious online ads detailing what New Democrats dub the record of corruption and mismanagement under Harper.
     
    The paid ads are being targeted through social media at voters in ridings in Ontario and across the West that the NDP believes it can wrest away from the Conservatives.
     
    And the party intends to follow up with a ground assault next week, sending Leader Tom Mulcair on an eight-day tour of some of the most fertile of those ridings in the crucial battleground of Ontario.
     
    The tour is expected to include ridings in the Greater Toronto Area, southwestern Ontario and the northern Ontario riding of Kenora, where former provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton is taking on Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford.
     
    The double-barrelled offensive is aimed at building on the party's breakthrough success in the 2011 election by targeting some of the 106 ridings where the NDP finished second to the Tories. And it's designed to leave voters fed up with the Harper regime in no doubt about which opposition party, buoyed by momentum in the polls, is taking the fight directly to the Conservatives.
     
    The online ads, one in English, the other in French, are the most negative produced by the NDP since Mulcair became leader and come just two weeks after Mulcair vowed to eschew personal attacks.
     
    While he deemed "robust debate" comparing policies and track records to be within bounds, Mulcair said earlier this month: "The personal stuff — that’s just not my cup of tea. I don’t go down that street.”
     
    Some of the targets in the latest ads might beg to differ.
     
    To a soundtrack of ominous music, the ads show the faces of a series of Conservatives who've been charged, convicted or investigated for various offences, including chief fundraiser Irving Gerstein, former Harper adviser Bruce Carson, disgraced senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, former cabinet minister Peter Penashue, former Conservative candidate Saulie Zajdel and Conservative campaign worker Michael Sona, the only person convicted for orchestrating misleading robocalls during the last election.
     
    Each of the mug shots is stamped with the alleged crime perpetrated by the individual: illegal lobbying (Carson), breach of trust (Brazeau), misleading voters (Sona and Gerstein), bribery (Zajdel), misuse of funds for housing (Duffy) and so on.
     
    The ads wrap up with devastating video footage of Harper's former principal secretary and chief firefighter on ethical issues, Dean Del Mastro, shuffling in leg irons and handcuffs into a police vehicle after being sentenced last month for cheating on his campaign expenses in the 2008 election.
     
    "Have you had enough? It's time for change in Ottawa," the English ad concludes.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Trade, Russia, Up For Discussion As Stephen Harper Meets Ukraine's PM

    CHELSEA, Que. — Stephen Harper is set to send another signal of support to the embattled government of Ukraine as he meets with that country's prime minister.

    Trade, Russia, Up For Discussion As Stephen Harper Meets Ukraine's PM

    Canadian NRI Narinder Singh Kills Brother In Ludhiana Over Property Dispute

    Canadian NRI Narinder Singh Kills Brother In Ludhiana Over Property Dispute
    The victim, Bhupinder Singh, who was a leader of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and sarpanch of Jhammat village in Ludhiana district, was shot at least five times by his brother with a pistol from point blank range

    Canadian NRI Narinder Singh Kills Brother In Ludhiana Over Property Dispute

    Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan Comes To Vancouver For Indian Summer Festival

    Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan Comes To Vancouver For Indian Summer Festival
    Indian Summer Festival (ISF) spoke to Amjad, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan about their influences, the power of music and their illustrious position in the pantheon of classical music.

    Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan Comes To Vancouver For Indian Summer Festival

    Finance Minister Says B.C.'s Law Blueprint For Largest Private Investment Deal

    Mike de Jong says the proposed $36-billion facility on B.C.'s north coast would be the largest private investment in the province's history.

    Finance Minister Says B.C.'s Law Blueprint For Largest Private Investment Deal

    Abbotsford Man, 22, Charged With Child Luring And Exposing A Child To Sexually Explicit Material

    Police in the Fraser Valley say charges against Robert Koenig come more than six months after a complaint from a family in the United States.

    Abbotsford Man, 22, Charged With Child Luring And Exposing A Child To Sexually Explicit Material

    Deepan Budlakoti, Indian-Origin 'Stateless' Man Asks To Relax The Conditions Of His Release

    Deepan Budlakoti, Indian-Origin 'Stateless' Man Asks To Relax The Conditions Of His Release
    Budlakoti was born in in Ottawa in 1989 to Indian parents who worked for the Indian government and he was not granted automatic citizenship.

    Deepan Budlakoti, Indian-Origin 'Stateless' Man Asks To Relax The Conditions Of His Release

    PrevNext