Paul Martin defended a Liberal television ad yesterday that warned the Conservatives would put "soldiers with guns" on the streets of Canadian cities.
He said several times that he personally approved the ad, which has been condemned by members of the military and some of his own MPs, but later denied it.
The Liberal Leader said the ad was intended to explain that his party disagrees with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's proposal to place units of 100 regular troops and 400 reservists in several major centres across Canada to respond to natural disasters and local emergencies.
"When you have a natural disaster as an example, you want to be able to move your forces very quickly and therefore have to have a critical mass and you can't spend the first two days trying to gather forces up from 20 or 30 cities across the county," Mr. Martin said at a news conference in Markham, Ont.
But that's not how many interpreted the ad, which was posted briefly this week on the Liberal Party website but has not been broadcast. Over a backdrop of an ominous drum beat, the ad declares: "Stephen Harper actually announced he wants to increase military presence in our cities. Canadian cities. Soldiers with guns. In our cities. In Canada. We did not make this up."
Mr. Martin said the ad never made it to air "because we thought there were better ads. That is essentially it." A series of Liberal attack ads began running on TV Tuesday night.
Liberal MP Keith Martin, who was the parliamentary secretary for defence and has a naval base in his Vancouver Island riding, said he apologized for the ads at an all candidates meeting Wednesday night.
"I apologized to Canadian forces members and their families. In no way does it reflect on the high esteem that we hold for the heroic work they do for our country," he said. He said he called Liberal Party headquarters as soon as he was made aware of the ad and was told it was posted on the website in error. "They told me some dim switch released it with the 11 ads that were approved by the party."
At least one Alberta Liberal candidate has voiced her disgust.
"I'm not wearing red," Wild Rose Liberal candidate Judy Stewart told an audience earlier this week, while she was campaigning at a school. "I'm not wearing my colours this one day of the campaign because I'm ashamed of these negative attack ads."
After saying several times yesterday that he had approved the ad, Mr. Martin reversed himself last night. When asked at a CBC-TV town hall meeting if he'd actually seen the ads, Mr. Martin replied that he'd seen a transcript before they were approved.
Moderator Peter Mansbridge asked Mr. Martin if he truly believed that people would perceive the ads as an explanation of policy rather than an attack on Mr. Harper.
"Your question's a very good one . . .," Mr. Martin replied. "That's the reason the ad never showed."
Mr. Mansbridge then pointed out that Mr. Martin said he himself had approved the ad.
"No I didn't approve it," said Mr. Martin. "That's what happens. The ad was prepared. I don't prepare the ads. And then immediately upon seeing it, we said this ad is going to be misconstrued."
But in Edmonton, deputy prime minister Anne McLellan added to the confusion.
"That ad was not intended to run. . . . As I understand it, it had not been formally approved by the Prime Minister," she said Tuesday. "It was not intended as a comment on our outstanding armed forces."
The Liberals appeared to be planting the seeds for negative ads in August, according to a leaked e-mail exchange between top Liberals. The e-mails were responding to a series of Conservative ads that tried to portray the Tories as more centrist.
"I'd say we should take a look at producing material that scratches the paint on their bright new Buick," wrote Jack Fleischmann, who oversees election advertising for the Liberal Party.
"I'd look at taking a run at where their daycare, their health care, their cutbacks would leave Canadians. If they want to fight on the issues, great. We ought to welcome a debate on the issues," Mr. Fleischmann wrote in an exchange that also included Liberal campaign director David Herle and officials from Bensimon Byrne, the Toronto ad agency behind the party's English language ads.
The e-mails were leaked this week and published on the "Angry in the Great White North" blog.
Mr. Fleischmann said the ads indicated that the Conservatives recognized they couldn't be painted into the "same extremist corner" as they were in the 2004 election and were already working to set the agenda for the next campaign.
"We should also look at producing some creative of our own," he wrote. "A series that strips away the CPC (Conservative Party of Canada) gloss and speaks to what we've done and we're doing."
"Creative" is industry jargon for advertising.
But Liberal adman Jack Bensimon argued that it would be a waste of money to air ads so long before the actual election campaign.
"I suggest we continue to manage our brand image through earned media and reserve our war chest for the time when voters are actually engaged," Mr. Bensimon wrote on Aug. 24. Earned media refers to press reports, as opposed to advertising. Mr. Bensimon is president of Bensimon Byrne.