Close X
Friday, November 8, 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

    Little Rain In Saskatchewan, Officials Warn Fire Evacuees Against Heading Home

    Little Rain In Saskatchewan, Officials Warn Fire Evacuees Against Heading Home
    Steve Roberts with wildfire management says some rain has fallen in the region but "not enough" to snuff out all fires near towns and reserves.

    Little Rain In Saskatchewan, Officials Warn Fire Evacuees Against Heading Home

    Pipeline Battle In Minnesota Pits Enbridge Against Native, Environmental Groups

    Pipeline Battle In Minnesota Pits Enbridge Against Native, Environmental Groups
    The Sandpiper and Line 3 Replacement projects would take the same route through much of the state — carrying North Dakota light oil and oilsands crude, respectively, to Superior, Wisc.

    Pipeline Battle In Minnesota Pits Enbridge Against Native, Environmental Groups

    Pan Am Organizers Addressing 'Kinks In The System' After Media Transport Delays

    Pan Am Organizers Addressing 'Kinks In The System' After Media Transport Delays
    TORONTO — Pan Am Games organizers say they're still ironing out "some kinks in the system" as journalists covering the multi-sport event face issues getting to and from venues scattered around the Greater Toronto Region.

    Pan Am Organizers Addressing 'Kinks In The System' After Media Transport Delays

    Separate Weekend Boating Accidents On B.C. Lakes Leave 2 Dead, One Hurt

    Separate Weekend Boating Accidents On B.C. Lakes Leave 2 Dead, One Hurt
    SICAMOUS, B.C. — An Alberta woman has died in a boating accident in British Columbia. RCMP in Sicamous, B.C. A 41-year-old man was also killed the vessel flipped and disintegrated while travelling at high speed across Sproat Lake

    Separate Weekend Boating Accidents On B.C. Lakes Leave 2 Dead, One Hurt

    Generosity Passed On: Edmonton Bar Servers Decide To Donate $1,000 Tip To Charity

    Generosity Passed On: Edmonton Bar Servers Decide To Donate $1,000 Tip To Charity
    Servers at Hudsons on the popular Whyte Avenue strip were given $1,000 last Thursday night by someone who said he had enjoyed the service.

    Generosity Passed On: Edmonton Bar Servers Decide To Donate $1,000 Tip To Charity

    Canadian Woman Who Joined Militia Fighting Islamic State Returns To Israel

    JERUSALEM — A Canadian-born woman who served in the Israeli military and later joined a Kurdish militia fighting the Islamic State group has returned to Israel.

    Canadian Woman Who Joined Militia Fighting Islamic State Returns To Israel