Harper hits out from the gutter
Feb 17, 2007 04:30 AM
The Toronto Star
Editorial"Was it only last week that Prime Minister Stephen Harper congratulated his Conservatives for "rebuilding public trust" in Ottawa, as they marked their first anniversary of taking office? For "doing the right thing" and for embracing "the values and aspirations of Canadians"?
Fine sentiments, to be sure. But they are more than a little undercut by the Conservative party's sleazy pre-election attack television ads on Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and his team. It's hard to recall such a nasty campaign, outside the overheated climate of a federal election race.
While Harper took office promising "good, clean government," there is nothing good or clean about lashing out from the gutter to claw down the opposition even before the election writ is dropped.
Exactly what Canadian "values" are engaged by a French-language TV ad the Tories aired this week that links Dion to the highly-charged term "vendu," which means "sellout" or "traitor," a jab at his credentials as a staunch Quebec federalist? Or in another that slyly implies Dion and Jean Chrétien are criminals, picturing them behind yellow police tape labelled "centralization, pollution, sponsorships and fiscal imbalance"?
...........SNIP"
http://www.thestar.com/article/182780