2008 Canadian election – Global News

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10-07-2008

Today's Buzz: Gambling at the polls

Shannon Proudfoot
Canwest News Service

The Liberals say Prime Minister Stephen Harper's now infamous gambling ads are a direct rip-off of the failed attack ads used by Australia's John Howard in his unsuccessful re-election bid in November 2007. (Canwest News Service)

The Liberals accused Stephen Harper on Tuesday of taking another page from former Australian prime minister John Howard's playbook, citing similarities between a 2007 ad from Howard's camp and a Conservative attack ad released a few weeks ago.

The charge: Both are gambling-themed ads featuring a craps table and the opposing politician's face superimposed on red dice, with Australian Labor Party Leader Kevin Rudd starring in the 2007 ad and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion in the Canadian spot. Both ads warned voters not to gamble on election day by changing the governing party.

The Liberals earlier revealed that large portions of a speech Harper gave in the House of Commons in 2005 were lifted from a speech Howard delivered two days earlier in Australia.

Sounds familiar: The Conservatives released two other gambling-themed ads featuring Dion early in the campaign. Describing Dion as "not worth the risk" has been a common refrain for the party throughout the campaign.

In the U.S., Barack Obama's campaign created a gambling-themed ad complete with roulette table and casino music to attack John McCain's voting record on energy, middle-class tax cuts and children's health care.

The Liberals themselves aren't immune to accusations they've played the borrowing game - the NDP alleges they copied a stars-and-stripes logo the NDP created in 2004 to link Paul Martin with George W. Bush. This time around, the Liberals are using a similar logo to publicize a fictional Bush-Harper ticket and the Liberal attack website, BushHarper.ca.

Oops: In a statement, the Liberals said it wasn't surprising that Harper "would return to the well to drink from the campaign tactics of his right-wind idol," with a typo getting in the way of branding Howard as Harper's "right-wing" idol.

Tough act to follow: John Howard lost his own seat in the 2007 election and his party was defeated by Rudd's party, after 11 years in power.

Posted by: jgreen

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