While the stage had been set in Ottawa for a debate over whether MPs are free to speak their minds, a new wave of ads created a battle over the freedom to wage partisan advertising wars instead.
Liberals are crying foul at yet another set of looming Conservative attacks on their new leader, Justin Trudeau, which are due to be mass-mailed to voters in flyers financed by the public purse.
Government House leader Peter Van Loan said his party was making no apology for organizing a Parliament-funded mail-out to warn voters away from Trudeau.
“It’s an important obligation for us to communicate with Canadians,” Van Loan told reporters. “The importance of experience and leadership are actually of significance to Canadians. . . . So it’s entirely appropriate for Canadians to be informed about those contrasting aspects of leadership that they have to deal with.”
Liberal House leader Dominic LeBlanc disagreed. “We don’t think Canadians are interested in having their tax dollars fund (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper’s negative campaigning,” LeBlanc said.
The planned series of mail-outs are contained in a kit for Conservative MPs, which allows them to pick and choose their attack lines against Trudeau to mail to constituents.
Conservatives, meanwhile, were greeted this week with a televised ad from Trudeau — a reply to the earlier wave of attacks — in which he is shown turning off the TV and asking for an end to negativity in politics.
Trudeau told reporters on Wednesday that the ads reflect what he heard from Canadians while travelling across the country on his leadership campaign. It remains unclear whether the Liberals will be saturating the airwaves with these ads to match the quantity and coverage of the Conservative attacks. Trudeau said in an email to supporters that the party has raised $500,000 in the past seven days to help finance an ad reply to his rivals.
All of this escalation in the advertising wars drowned out this week’s planned discussion in Parliament on removing the heavy partisan control over what MPs say in the Commons.
A Speaker’s ruling on Tuesday appeared to make it a bit easier for dissident Conservative MPs to stand up and make statements in the chamber. British Columbia MP Mark Warawa, one of the leaders of a vocal group of Conservatives who has been bristling at party control, got a chance to speak on Wednesday.
But a Liberal-led attempt to loosen party control over the daily members’ statements appeared headed toward defeat when the Commons votes later in the week. Van Loan made clear that Conservatives were content with how Tuesday’s ruling from Speaker Andrew Scheer had opened up room for more independent statements in the Commons.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Susan Delacourt
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