The federal Liberal Party has released three election-themed TV ads featuring Michael Ignatieff, for the first time since his election as party leader in May.
Speaking in English in one of the 30-second ads, Ignatieff tells viewers that Canadians need a governing party that has an international perspective and can build relations with China and India.
"We need a new way of thinking, a government that thinks big," Ignatieff says, while standing in front of a forest. "I know Canada can take on the world and win."
The slogan for the English advertisement is "We can do better."
In two French versions, Igantieff is more critical of the governing Conservative party. He focuses on environmental reforms in one. In the other, he says the Tories have mismanaged the economy.
The slogan in that ad is "We deserve better."
Both versions have been posted on the popular video streaming website YouTube and on the Liberal Party's website.
"We've had enough of Mr. Harper's spin and deceit. Now is the time to put Canada on the path to prosperity," Ignatieff said in a message posted on social networking website Facebook, encouraging people to watch the new ads. "We can do better. So let's get started!"
The tone and content of the video messages is deliberately upbeat, said Rocco Rossi, the Liberal party's national director, in response to Conservative ads from earlier this year that portrayed Ignatieff as arrogant and disconnected from Canada.
"For years, the Conservatives have run personal attack-style ads against our leaders, and we're doing politics in a very different way," Rossi told 麻豆影视 Channel on Sunday. "All we're trying to do is show Canadians what we in the Liberal party already know, that Michael Ignatieff is a different kind of leader, a world-class leader."
"You will not see personal attack-style ads in the manner that Conservatives have done for years," Rossi said. "We will of course focus on the record, but there will be no personal attacks."
While the Liberals are promoting Ignatieff's international success as an author, journalist and professor as a positive, Conservatives say it reinforces just the opposite.
"Michael Ignatieff is trying to re-cast himself as a man of the people, a leader who can be entrusted with the Canadian economy," Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney said in a statement.
"He is hoping Canadians will forget his record. He's hoping Canadians won't notice that he's putting Canada's economic recovery at risk by forcing an unnecessary election. Mr. Ignatieff is hoping he can hide who he really is."
Patrick Muttart, a Tory who has worked on his party's advertisements, says the Liberal ads play to "rich, urban, internationalist" Canadians.
"Quite frankly, he doesn't need additional "snob" votes as there are none left on the table," Muttart, former deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, told The Canadian Press.
"He's got a lock on this corner of the political marketplace."
A fall election?
The ads seem to reinforce Ignatieff's declaration at last week's party retreat in Sudbury, Ont., that the Liberals are preparing to bring down Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government and initiate a federal election this fall.
The Liberals have reportedly produced three other ads, which will be aired in the coming weeks.
The amount of the ads suggest the Liberals are in a much better financial position to compete under Ignatieff then they were under former leader Stephane Dion.
The Conservatives need a dozen MPs from other parties to support them on a confidence vote in order to avoid an election.
In the wake of Ignatieff's election saber-rattling, both NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Qu锟絙锟絚ois Leader Gilles Duceppe said they would support the Conservatives on confidence votes as long as their demands are met in Parliament.
Layton said he would like to see new legislation to boost employment insurance benefits, protect pensions and limit the fees charged by credit cards and ATM machines.
A confidence vote could occur as early as mid-September. The Conservatives have said they may introduce a ways and means motion immediately after Parliament resumes on Sept. 14, which would bring down the government if it is defeated.
