Ottawa

Attack of the Killer Attack Ads! In 3-Cheese!

Andrew Coyne gives the new Liberal ads a rewrite

The new Liberal ads get a broadly favourable review from friend Wells. Not so much from me. Can we please dispense with the Damien: Omen II mood music and snarky, insinuating voiceovers, the same stylistic devices used in every attack ad ever made? I know its only been several million times, but it’s really starting to get old. Just once, can we have a level-headed discussion about how we’re governed — without all the cheap theatrics?

Here’s the ad I’d like to see:

Rather than answer serious questions about its handling of prisoners in Afghanistan, the Conservative government has shut down Parliament. Your Parliament. The heart of our democracy.

This has got to stop. For years, governments of both parties — Conservative and Liberal — have been treating Parliament with contempt, gutting its powers, reducing its ability to hold governments to account. And now it’s come to this.

We’ll take our share of the blame for Parliament’s decline. Because we’re serious about fixing it. We want to put Parliament back at the centre of our democratic life.

Read the complete plan at Liberal.ca.

Or something like that.

It only takes about 30 seconds to read. But imagine if a party actually said something like that — if it talked to us as if we were adults? No cheesy crash-chords, no over-blown dramatics, no appeals to paranoia. Just level with us: lay out the problem, and suggest a solution.

I know. Never going to happen.

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