Lame Liberal Ads

The Ontario Liberal TV ads aired so far during the election campaign leave me a little perplexed.

If you live in Ontario, you have probably seen them.

They feature Premier Dalton McGuinty essentially delivering monologues with such profound lines as "You know what I love about public schools? They are public." (Watch for that brilliant observation to end up in Bartlett's quotations.)

The problem with these ads is two-fold.

First, McGuinty has all the charisma of a cold cup of coffee and it comes across on TV. In these ads, for instance, his delivery is more wooden than Captain Ahab's leg. He looks like a guy rehearsing for a job interview.

Second and more seriously, the polls show McGuinty lags his party in popularity. Ontarians, in fact, think PC leader John Tory would make the better Premier. McGuinty, on the other hand, is most associated with "flip flopping" and breaking promises.

So why in the world if you are a Liberal strategist would you run ads drawing attention to your party's weakest point? It's like trying to sell your house with ads bragging about your leaky basement.

Oh well, it's probably an ego thing on McGuinty's part.

No doubt if the polls show the Liberals are running into trouble they will break out the attack ads.

Then things might get a little more interesting.