Four ads and a parody

New election ads were launched today.

The first, a standard attack ad from the Conservatives, seems a bit, well, obvious. It’s not entirely true unless you live in the riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore, but it’s obvious nonetheless.

The second is also curious – apparently, the third-biggest priority of the Conservatives is to stop human smuggling. It ends up coming across as pandering to populist xenophobia (and that includes within the much-courted immigrant communities as it keeps up the narrative of “good immigrants” versus “bad freeloaders”).

The first Liberal ad is a direct-to-camera recitation of policy points.

The second Liberal ad speaks of Ignatieff’s vision for Quebec: people would be able to choose to be Quebeckers and Canadians in whichever order they want (as they often consider Quebec their nation and Canada their country). This is also quite a chipper and upbeat video with lots of happy images.

But the best video of all? A parody comparing Stephen Harper’s speech yesterday to the speech given by Chancellor Palpatine where he declared himself Emperor of the Galactic Republic.

Dale Smith is a freelance journalist in the Parliamentary Press Gallery and author of The Unbroken Machine: Canada's Democracy in Action.

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