Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff dishes out pancakes while attending the party's Stampede breakfast at the Calgary Zoo. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

Conservative attack ads that suggest Bloc Québécois members are soft on pedophiles are a dirty tactic unworthy of Canadian politics, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff charged Saturday.

In a stump-style speech at a Stampede breakfast in Calgary, Ignatieff said the ads, which blast the Bloc for voting against a law that would impose minimum sentences in child trafficking cases, further divide the country.

"I'm in politics to defeat the Bloc Québécois with real arguments, rather than slurs and vicious ad hominem personal attacks," Ignatieff told a cheering crowd of several hundred Liberal supporters.

The Conservatives have also run attack ads that criticize Ignatieff for spending much of his adult life outside the country.

Ignatieff said there's plenty to criticize about the federal Tories without stooping to attacks on anyone's character or patriotism.