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National Citizens Coalition produces attack ad against Bob Rae

It happened to Stpehane Dion; it happened to Michael Ignatieff; and now it's happened to Bob Rae.

A new scathing attack ad has been launched against the interim Liberal leader, taking him to task for his record as premier of Ontario.

But this time the ad wasn't produced by the Conservative party - it was produced, according to a story in the Hill Times, by the National Citizens Coalition (NCC), a right wing lobby group that Stephen Harper once led.

The ad has prompted NDP and Liberal MPs to call for Parliamentary restrictions on third party ads between election periods.

"It's just so wide open to abuse, as we see with the Conservatives," NDP MP Joe Comartin told the Hill Times adding that restrictions on ads should be set for both third parties and political parties.

"I think we badly need to do that, it's just such a glaring, gaping hole in our system. We have a right to be reasonably proud of how much better [than the U.S.] we've done with election financing and financing for political parties generally. If we don't continue to improve it, you backslide."

Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis said the attack by the NCC, with close past ties to Harper, smells of American politics.

"Although we might not be able to trace it and put a finger back on him [Harper], definitely like-minded individuals want Harper to succeed, and they see Mr. Rae as a threat... and that's why the attack ads," he told the Hill Times.

"Definitely it adds up. If it quacks likes a duck, if it walks like a duck, if it smells like a duck, it is a duck."

Without Parliamentary restrictions, however, we may see more of these types of negative ads pop-up in the months and years ahead.

As the per-vote subsidy winds down later this year, Canada's federal political parties will receive less money from Elections Canada meaning they may rely more on third parties to do their dirty work for them.

See the ad here: