Tim Hudak’s Ontario Tories hope to emulate federal cousins’ attack ads

It's election time in Ontario and that must mean another slew of negative attack ads.

The Ontario Progressive Conservatives fired their first salvo at the governing Liberals on Wednesday night.

The 30-second ad, which aired on CBC during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, features an unflattering picture of Premier Dalton McGuinty and a narrator who warns he will hike taxes again if re-elected on Oct. 6.

"Since getting elected eight years ago, Dalton McGuinty has become The Tax Man, taking more and more money out of Ontario family budgets," says the announcer.

"With his health tax, his HST tax grab, his sneaky eco tax, adding HST to your hydro bills and his tax hikes to come, The Tax Man is so used to making you pay, he can't even see how hard it is on you."

The Toronto Star reported the ad will be seen in constant rotation around Ontario in several languages including Mandarin, Cantonese and Punjabi — over the next two weeks.

Pollster Nik Nanos conducted research on the federal Conservative attack ads against then-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and found the ads, like this one, have no discernable effect in the short-term, but in the long term may assist in developing an opponent's narrative.

Harper's Tories were successful in painting Ignatieff as a political opportunist who only came back to Canada to be prime minister.

Hudak's team has now began its narrative on McGuinty, framing him as a reckless tax-and-spend Liberal.

In other words, the ad wars are just beginning.

Watch the Ontario PC ad:

(Reuters Photo)