Canada PoliticsTories undaunted by criticisms about Trudeau attack ads
Despite a bit of a backlash from both traditional and social media sources, the Conservatives are a patting themselves on their backs for a job well-done on the Trudeau attack ads.
Earlier this week, just hours after the Liberals elected Justin Trudeau as their new leader, the Tories surprised no one with attack ads which included pictures of Trudeau doing a strip tease and a much older clip of him saying that "Quebecers are better than the rest of Canada."
[ Related: Tories release first attack ads against Justin Trudeau: “He’s in way over his head” ]
The 'media' was, appropriately, quick to point out that Trudeau's strip tease was from a 2011 fundraising gala to raise money to fight liver disease while the 'Quebecers' quote was Justin paraphrasing something his father had told him.
On Wednesday, the Canadian Press reported that the attack ad backlash fueled a Liberal party fundraising drive: According to CP, the party raised $336,000 in the 48 hours following the leadership announcement on Sunday. Moreover, the Canadian Liver Foundation raised $10,000 in unsolicited donations.
But the Conservatives say, they wouldn't do anything different.
Here is an email blast — sent out to supporters — by Jenni Byrne, the Conservative Party's director of political operations and a Harper insider.
On Monday, we launched three new ads informing Canadians that Justin Trudeau is in way over his head.
Unsurprisingly, some members of the media are criticizing our new TV ads. They are circling the wagons.
But here's the truth — these ads have spread farther and faster than any ads we've ever done. We are communicating directly with Canadians rather than passing through the media's "filter".
In two days, our ads were viewed more than 270,000 times on YouTube — more views than we have ever received on any video before — including during an election cycle.
We received so much traffic to our website that it temporarily crashed — something that's never happened before.
Despite what the media wants you to think, the response to our new ad campaign has been overwhelming.
We need to make sure every Canadian sees these ads and you can help by making a $25 donation today.
I’d like to thank you for helping make this happen, but our work is far from over
Please visit http://JustinOverHisHead.ca today and hit the share button on these ads and to help us keep the momentum going.
With regard to the actual content of the videos, the party isn't backing down either.
"Justin Trudeau uses a charity as a political shield while charging others tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of hearing him speak," party spokesperson Fred DeLorey told Yahoo! Canada News in an email exchange.
"We believe Justin Trudeau's eagerness to perform a strip-tease, regardless of the venue or putative cause, says something about his judgement."
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