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Political attack ads work both ways

Stephen Harper tactics didn't work on the NDP

Re: B.C. importing U.S.-style politics (B.C. Views, Sept. 21)

Negative attack ads achieve voter suppression. YouTube’s “Christy Crunch” is just a humorous and accurate portrayal of her policies rather than negative attack ads. It’s the Clark Liberals’ and the Harper Conservatives’ doom-and-gloom style negative attack ads that achieve voter suppression.

Otherwise, if “going negative early … worked spectacularly for Harper’s Conservatives,” as Tom Fletcher claimed, what about those attack ads that maligned Jack Layton as well? At least hundreds of thousands of new votes went to the NDP, giving them historic opposition status. So something else is at play below the radar.

I can’t see Christy Crunch or Stephen Harper and their privileged or confused followers trying door-to-door for more than a few minutes of photo-ops.

Larry Wartel

Victoria



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