The dogs bark. Do they bite? The NDP have a pet-shop ad campaign going in Quebec, where the point is to play the party as a fresh voice after years of stale political rivalry.
The party's new French-language ad is called " dogs," and it features dogs barking at each other. Woof woof, arf arf, etc etc. The tag line that follows the annoying yaps is: "Still the same debates that go nowhere. It's time that changes."
The ads don't say it explicitly, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the yappy pooches are supposed to be the Bloc Québécois, Conservatives, and Liberals. For Quebeckers, those are the three established parties - but the NDP, which won one seat in the province in the last election, is a bit of a new player, even though they have of course always been there.
The dog ads follow the NDP's similarly pet-themed previous Quebec ads, " hamsters," which shows a hamster running on a wheel. Going nowhere. Okay, you get it.
The NDP wasn't the only party to add a new spot to the election line-up over the weekend.
The Tories added a new attack on Michael Ignatieff to coincide with Sunday's release of the Liberal election platform. But in style and theme it's much the same as many of their previous spots: pictures of Ignatieff on a money background, grainy clips, and attacks. The tag line is "Higher Prices. Higher Taxes. Higher Spending."
Campbell Clark