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Top five Canadian political ads of 2013

The latest Ontario Liberal Party advertisement is unique in that it's not your typical 'we're great, opposition is bad' campaign-style offering. The ad, released last month, features Premier Kathleen Wynne, running and telling viewers things they might not know about her.

In 2013, political parties and activists really upped the ante when it came to their advertisements.

It being year-end, we thought we'd put together a selection of our favourites.

So here are Yahoo Canada News' top political ads — the most effective and entertaining — of 2013:

1. 'Just-in' over his head

This was probably the most talked about Canadian political ad of the year.

Less than 24 hours after Justin Trudeau won the federal Liberal leadership in April, the Tories launched their first attack ad against him. It was a 'doozy.'

The Conservatives took some heat for the ads. Liberals and even some in the media argued that the video’s content was unfair and taken out of context.

Nevertheless, the Conservatives have continued to propagate the message that Justin is ‘in over his head.’

[ Related: Liberals and Conservatives battle for year-end donations ]

These types of negative ads worked for the Tories with their 'just visiting' Michael Ignatieff campaign.

Could it work on Trudeau?

2. Getting to know Kathleen Wynne

The latest Ontario Liberal Party advertisement is unique in that it's not your typical 'we're great, opposition is bad' campaign-style offering.

The ad, released last month, features Premier Kathleen Wynne, running and telling viewers things they might not know about her.

Interestingly, the Liberal ad led to some rather hilarious mock ads.

Here's one — a Rob Ford satire:

3. Economic in-action ad

Since 2009, the Harper government has spent $113 million on those darn economic action plan ads. While the Tories claim they give Canadians good information, most people think they're simply political ads at taxpayer expense.

[ Related: Harper government spending $9 million on wireless industry advertising: report ]

Enter 'Sh#& Harper Did'

In May, the cadre of young political activists crowd-funded this anti-Harper attack ad and actually had it broadcast during a Hockey Night in Canada playoff game.

4. B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix takes blame for the Spice Girls, plaid shirts

This has to be one the most clever political advertisements in British Columbian history — maybe even in Canadian history.

For background: the governing B.C. Liberals — Premier Christy Clark's party — went negative ahead of the May 2013 election. During the campaign, the Liberals relentlessly chided the New Democrats for their record when they were in government in the 1990s.

Here was the NDP's witty response to those attacks.

This ad didn't work — Clark's Liberals won the election handily.

5. Protect Public broadcasting, slam the Harper government

In May, as explained by the Globe and Mail, the Tories' introduced Bill C-60 which would, among other things, give Cabinet the "explicit power to give Crown corporations orders as to how they should negotiate with employees, both unionized and non-unionized."

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting — an independent watchdog for Canadian programming, radio, TV and new media — believed that the bill takes direct aim at the independence of CBC.

They responded with this sharp-tongued attack:

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