New YouTube Response to Liberal Hypocrisy Launched

Some of you will be familiar with recent online attack ads circulated by our Liberal compatriots targeting NDP leader Jack Layton for… well… uh… um… agreeing to meet briefly with the Prime Minister to discuss issues of national concern and importance to their mutual constituents, the people of Canada.

In the period immediately before a contentious Fall Parliamentary session, at that! The audacity.

If you’ve seen the unofficial spots, which scandalously compare Canada’s long-time progressive champion to a certain un-named flightless bird, you’ll know they’re so maliciously partisan, self-servingly selective, and outright historically delusional that it beggars belief.  

It’s a variety and intensity of hypocrisy that only Federal Liberals would ever dare attempt. Anyone else might feel some shame or broader sense of personal and political dignity. They might fear being accused of thinking the Canadian people are stupid. 

The original Liberal smear videos are carefully crafted to appear the work of an amateur. But make no mistake: these digital character attacks, like the “spontaneous” appearance of tiny groups (in Halifax recently, three) of hopeless and easily-led lifelong virgins at Layton events, are the work of professional character assassins in the Liberal war room or research bureau. It’s the type of divisive, malicious, and Rovian tactics which constitute the only contribution to Canada’s public life made by the man who now heads the Grit war room, the notorious punk rock desecrator Warren Kinsella.

His is what Hillary Clinton once termed the “politics of personal destruction.” Incidentally, it’s also the reason voter turnout is near 50% and we can’t get enough quality women, new Canadians and young people from any party involved in the democratic process. From people’s faith to their families, nothing is off limits. Politics is non-metaphorical war. 

They’re about as authentic as the astroturf uprising which Harper and Ignatieff employed in December 2008 to justify replacing a broadly inclusive progressive coalition with the narrower, self-interested monstrosity that is today’s enduring Liberal-Conservative ideological rapport.  

So, friends, on this fine Sunday that the Liberals officially unveil the largest non-writ ad buy in that party’s history – remarkably bland and crappy ones, it should be said, featuring some weird, Vulcanesque and semi-coherent professor-looking type monotonously extolling truisms about the rising economic clout of leading developing nations – we’re happy to unveil an unofficial New Democratic response to the Liberal Party of Canada’s latest character assassination drive.  

Please appreciate that the video is the voluntary work of a group of private citizens and activists, and is in no way associated with the New Democratic Party or any of its affiliates. They don’t have access to the official Parliamentary resources that the Liberals use to attack their rivals, nor have they enjoyed any materiel or moral support from the central party. And not for lack of effort.  

Please feel free to distribute as widely as possible, embed in your blog or website, and tag on social networks. The creators of this content have requested the following disclaimer be made for posterity: attacks on fellow Canadian progressives are odious and counter-productive at a time when Conservatives are consciously exploiting such divisions as a core element of their political strategy. This is – or should be – true whether a Democrat is attacking a Liberal or vice versa.

This said, a strategist once observed that a shot unanswered is a shot conceded. Since the Liberals seem intent on a full-spectrum assault on the NDP, even with the horrendous shortcomings of their own recent Parliamentary record, it’s essential to begin the work of retaliating and to sustain that effort so that it hurts.   

The bottom line: Michael Ignatieff is accusing New Democrats of abdication immediately following a sustained period of Liberal legislative cowardice spanning nearly 100 confidence votes, two years, and as many leaders. It’s rank hypocrisy of the worst and most obvious kind.  

The clip can be accessed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOv77Q3EhtU

Enjoy, and stay tuned for a lot more real soon. We’re just getting warmed up. With opponents like the Liberals and Tories, wish the election started yesterday. If this is the kind of leadership Canada has today, evidently it’s time for a change of historic proportions.