06.15.2011 10:15 PM

On Hudak’s smear (updated)

Tonight, Hudak ran a ham-fisted attack ad during the final Canucks-Bruins game (and let’s not talk about “the game,” okay?).  So someone sent me this in response. Looks like they did it some time ago, but I tend to think the criticism it contains – that Hudak’s in it for himself, not the taxpayer – will carry a bit more of a sting than the piece of sophomoric garbage he’s paying to put on-air.

It’s going to be an interesting campaign.

UPDATE: Best observation, from one of my fave sports columnists: “7 min.: Two things are now certain — Vancouver is going to have to do this 5-on-5; and Ontario Tory boss Tim Hudak’s big Game 7 TV ad splurge is wasted on the inebriated half of the audience and annoying the sober remainder.”

27 Comments

  1. Patrick Hamilton says:

    Please delete the above cars burning comment…..six cars and counting is no laughing matter…. Im disappointed, but not surprised…….
    Should have used water cannon on their sorry asses…..

  2. The Other Jim says:

    On a related note, I really liked the OLP ads that ran during the game.

  3. Fabian says:

    I thought the Hudak commercial was effective. The Liberal commercial, as my wife remarked, was not even recognized as a Liberal commercial until the last dying seconds. She couldn’t see much difference between it and the Ontario Savings Bonds ads. In the end it was very forgettable, unlike the Hudak attack ad, which is unfortunate.

  4. ben burd says:

    OK let’s get this straight being the nice guy is not going to impress the masses. The Taxman is a winner! Turn it around to say “Yes we are the Taxmen but look what you paid for” and then trumpet a list of achievements. After all if you have no achievements you have no win

    • WildGuesser says:

      The Torys should get Russell Oliver to dress up as a parody of McGuinty and do a little dance. I’m the Tax Mannn! Gonna Takes Your Monies, Yeah You Know It’s True!

  5. Michael Behiels says:

    McGuinty should hire this team!

    Young, middle class suburban voters are very angry for various reasons. The same phenomenon is happening in Qc and a new right wing conservative party under Legault is emerging to exploit their anger at Charest, Lib. Leader, and Marois, PQ leader.

    Many of these educated prof. Families have university debts & big mortgages that many of them can’t afford. Yet, many of these parents send their children to private schools and want taxpayers to pay their way. Many resent having to pay taxes for social and health services they maintain do not benefit them.

    Many of these families refuse to examine their own decisions. Many over reached on the expectation that the boom would continue indefinitely. They were encouraged in this thinking by self-serving financial institutions. Instead, it is far easier to blame gov’t, federal, provincial, & municipal for their financial problems.
    Hudak is exploiting this socio-economic crisis by promising to provide relief to these educated, well-paid middle class families. But, the relief will come at the expense of the working poor families and those unfortunate enough not to have jobs thanks to the ongoing Great Recession.

    • The Other Jim says:

      This!

    • WildGuesser says:

      The anger of the middle class is brought about by them feeling worse off in their financial security than the TTC ticket takers and other government workers who’s gold-plated indexed pension plans they have to finance. In an era where people can be expected to live to 90+ and projected rates of return on retirement savings are in the low-mid single digits, it is almost impossible for those without defined pension benefit plans to ever feel financially secure and resentment amongst the haves vs have-nots should not be under-estimated. McGuinty ‘secret’ post-election raises to the public sector unions should be a big factor in his downfall.

      • Michael Behiels says:

        The young middle class’s anger against other sectors of the middle class is self-destructive. Shooting holes in other sectors of the beleaguered middle class’s boats simple impoverishes the entire middle class.
        The best example of this self-destructive behavior is starring us in the face south of the border.
        Defined benefit pension plans are not all they are cracked up to be.
        When times were good, and will again become good, defined contribution plans paid out, and will pay out, much higher pensions than defined benefit pension plans.
        The people that society has to be concerned with are the 60% of workers who have no pension plan, public or private! This going to become a socio-political and economic crisis over the next three decades.
        We the voters should not permit self-serving politicians to divide the middle class, weaken it,and then rule with impunity.

      • Torgo says:

        Reponse to WildGuesser:

        Actual life expectancy is around 80.

        Most government works contribute substantially to their pension plans, and the only people in government who get ‘gold-plated’ are usually MPs, MLAs and DMs.

        Also, don’t you think the solution to this problem might be to find a way to provide better pension options to private sector workers and to shore up the CPP? Or would you prefer the usual race to the bottom?

        • WildGuesser says:

          At least you seem to acknowledge that the disparity is a ‘problem’. I recognize that government workers contribute significantly to their pensions and am all for a system that has a mandatory 15% employee contribution, with a nice 27.5% 1.5x government match. At least then there would be transparency as to how these million dollar pensions that public sector workers accumulate are built up. Whether Canadians and Canada can afford that type of scheme for everyone is another matter entirely.

          While MPs may get a ‘platinum-plated’ plan, I find it disingenious to say that public sector plans generally are not ‘gold-plated’, whether it is due to the pension being based on income earned during an overtime heavy last 5 years of service, or whether because the pension can be taken at 55, or just because of the indexing and survivor benefits for a spouse who might be 25 years the pensioner’s junior. The fact that the comparable cost, if one were to go out shopping for such a pension annuity, is $1million+ for a $60-$90k middle class salary (after 35 years of working), is of little to no concern for the beneficiaries when the government is the payer.

          The disparity amongst the angry young professionals with their peers in the public sector is understandable enough in itself, but then throw in the fact that postal workers (adult paper boys anyone?) and TTC ticket takers (Cineplex cashiers anyone?) have somehow become $50k/yr+ jobs with 6 or 7 weeks of vacation and banked sick time, and is there really any doubt why the men and women struggling with university debt view the situation that sees their former classmates who ended schooling in Grade 12 in a much better situation?

          I think it’s clear where you side in the context of things, and many of your compatriots in Greece are finding out where that road leads if it becomes to widespread. Either the disparity is kept and limited to the elite few in the public sector or the disparity is removed by compensating public sector workers more in line with their worth, as determined by many potential people who would take those jobs for less pay in a heartbeat. The LPC should really consider carefully where they stand on this issue as pandering to a shrinking demographic of public sector beneficiaries, and competing for them with the NDP and Bloq, is very questionable strategy. Most likely, the issue will continue to be ignored entirely, limiting any kind of equalization to seniors who are living in poverty, and the educated youth who used to be the LPCs bread and butter will continue to increasingly support the ‘fairer’ anti-public sector solution to address the disparity as espoused by the anti-labour LPC. It would be refreshing to see the LPC adopt a refreshing centrist position that wouldn’t still make getting a government job, if one can, the most economically sensible option for youth.

  6. MLukas says:

    This will be an interesting campaign, but I think the OLP is smart to start off with a positive commerical rather then a negative one.

    The big winner – McGuinty announcing that they would refund Go rider’s tickets if the trains were more than 20 minutes late. Working downtown, probably half my co-workers take the Go train. Like the subway, Go train rides are something which are a significant part of people’s lives which is why a policy like this is so smart.

    • Cath says:

      Impossible to police or monitor and expensive to manage. Not to mention that those to don’t depend on GO transit because they live outside the corridors see this as more perks to the large urban centres while the small rural and northern communities get jack – early learning programs that are pitting municipal day-care providers against school providers, more school closures by comparison to any larger urban centre, and made-in-Toronto programs and promises that no one outside the bubble can relate to and…well….you get my drift.

    • sharonapple88 says:

      Funny thing, my co-workers talked about the Go train refund. It was the first thing they mentioned from the campaign.

      • Cath says:

        how about a refund to all of the other taxpayers who have to pay for a service they never use?

        • allegra fortissima says:

          Brilliant question, Cath.

          But I am wondering: why should people without kids pay for your kids’ schools, for example? According to your “logic” they’d be entitled to a tax refund.

          Don’t be ridiculous.

          • MLukas says:

            Look, the simple fact is that the Golden Horseshoe, from which a majority of the Go riders hail, makes up a *significant* part of the population/economy of the province.

            And hey, the parts of the province you claim McGuinty doesn’t care about seemed to have been the main beneficiary from Harper’s Economic Action Plan – not Toronto.

            And if I remember correctly, the pork-barrelling that was given to these parts of the province was a lot more than the 7 million the Go refund will cost. Probably made much less of an impact per population too!

  7. Jonathan Giggs says:

    I’m going to disagree with Warren and side with Martin Regg Cohn. I thought the ads were effective and reminded me of what I haven’t liked about the McGuinty government. The Liberal ads were largely unforgettable.

    http://www.thestar.com/article/1009563–cohn-ontario-tories-tv-power-play-a-winner

  8. allegra fortissima says:

    I’ve seen better ads. Like this one, for example:

    http://youtu.be/lL7ss9JAFHc

  9. Bill From Willowdale says:

    Smear or not, it was a great time to run some ads. Liberals missed the boat on that one.

  10. Lipman says:

    Cathal Kelly’s line there in that sports column is priceless.

  11. Where have you been?

    Ontario’s economic base is manufacturing. Parallels Detroit exactly.

  12. WK: All the Ontario Liberals have to do is:

    Run a picture of Tim shaking hands with Mike Harris. Caption: “Tim likes Mike. If you want more of Mike, vote for Tim. If you don’t like Mike, Dalton has the best chance of beating Tim.”

    There. Where can I send my invoice?

  13. Ted says:

    As they say about Hudak: if you don’t like what he’s saying today, wait until tomorrow.

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