Tories accused of following Tea Partier's script in new ad

A slick new Conservative television ad that seeks to present Stephen Harper as a statesmanlike leader bears an unusual number of similarities to a recent commercial for the Tea Party-backed Republican former governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, and his 2012 presidential run.

The 60-second Tory spot titled Our Country, which unfolds like the trailer for a Hollywood political thriller or a boastful Molson Canadian ad, mixes archival scenes from Canada’s glorious past, including the 1988 Olympic torch relay and a black-and-white newsreel snippet of marching soldiers, with sweeping images of the country’s awesome geography, fighter jets and a multicultural passel of faces.

All are set against a backdrop of a thumping orchestral score and the speech Mr. Harper delivered to the Conservative Party faithful last January on the fifth anniversary of his 2006 ascent to the Prime Minister’s Office, in which he declared: “We want Canada to be a True North that is as strong and as free as it can be, in every way that matters – the best country in the world.”

But hours after it was released on the Conservative Party’s YouTube channel Tuesday, the Liberals uploaded a video to their own YouTube channel titled “Harper ad strikingly similar to Tea Party Governor ad,” which stitched the Conservative spot to the end of Mr. Pawlenty’s commercial promoting his political action committee and his memoir Courage to Stand: An American Story. The book was released in January by the Illinois-based Christian publisher Tyndale House.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/tories-accused-of-following-tea-partiers-script-in-new-ad/article1972359/

In the same vein they were running an ad around here questioning Iggy's 'nationality'.


.