Ad campaign 'speaks to issues' without slagging: Charest
But Liberal leader is ready to respond if attacked by opponents
Last Updated: Friday, November 14, 2008 | 10:23 AM ET
The Canadian Press
The Quebec Liberal ads play up leader Jean Charest's team of candidates. (CBC)No puffins are pooping on Péquistes in the new election advertisements released by the Quebec Liberals this week.
Instead, it's just Premier Jean Charest telling voters he's the man with the plan.
The pooping puffin became a pariah for Prime Minister Stephen Harper in this fall's federal election campaign, when an ad featuring the bird scoring a direct hit on federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion got a sour reaction from voters.
Charest's not going that route in the buildup to the Dec. 8 election.
'We're going to respond if we're attacked.'—Premier Jean Charest
"We are going to speak to the issues in this campaign," the premier said at a campaign stop in Montreal announcing improvements to public transit.
But he made it clear that if his rivals take their gloves off in their ads, he will follow suit.
" We're going to respond if we're attacked," Charest said. "I don't think we have any other choice."
ADQ members complain in ad
Charest might get his chance with ads released Thursday by Opposition Leader Mario Dumont's Action Démocratique du Québec.
In those ads, several ADQ candidates are gathered for supper in a scene that looks as though it's out of director Denys Arcand's acclaimed boomer movie, The Decline of the American Empire.
However, the ADQ members are complaining about the decline of Quebec under Charest and PQ Leader Pauline Marois, grousing up a storm about infrastructure, deficits and failed reforms.
A paternalistic-looking Dumont appears in the scene and tells voters they can expect better results from an ADQ government.
Campaigning in Alma, where he promised increased help to home caregivers, Dumont was put slightly on the defensive over a newspaper report that an ADQ staffer had been behind an internet video that spoofed Marois as a snob.
He said he has no intention of disciplining the staffer and added, "I do not control what goes on the internet."
Charest said that in 24 years of politics, he has tried to refrain from personal attacks on adversaries and called on his opponents in the debate scheduled for Nov. 25 to do the same.
"I hope the two other leaders will come to this debate with a commitment to not wage personal attacks."
Ads focus on economy, family
The Liberal TV ads are only in French, although there will be English-language radio spots. The TV ads take two approaches.
One focuses on the economy with a business-like Charest spinning his message amid a whirlwind of images of hydroelectric dams, cars whizzing along highways, construction workers, wind turbines and a fast-moving stock market results board.
The other ad is more touchy-feely and targets the family. Charest doesn't appear in a sweater like Harper did to soften his image, but he does ditch the tie.
There are also lots of kids and kissing – moms kissing babies, dads kissing moms.
In an apparent nod to the economy, two guys in hard hats appear and look at each other, but don't kiss. Both ads end with Charest surrounded by his cabinet ministers.
The PQ has an ad out, but with members of Marois's team front and centre for the first part.
They all trumpet The Marois Plan for bolstering Quebec's daycare system, with the PQ chief coming in for the final seconds to pitch it home.
