One of the ads suggesting that the Conservatives would allow troops to patrol the streets of Canadian cities has been scrapped but not before it had drawn criticism from Canadians writing in to online news sources. The ad’s voiceover said, "Stephen Harper actually announced he wants to increase military presence in our cities. Canadian cities. Soldiers with guns. In our cities. In Canada. We did not make this up."

Conservative MP Jason Kenny said the ad tried to call Harper a "threat to democracy." "This is without precedent in Canadian politics, this is the most vicious, baseless attack ad that our politics has ever seen," Kenney said.

Liberal spokesman Ken Polk told The Globe and Mail that though the ad had been pulled from Liberal party website, it may still be aired.

The bloggers, who are seeing the political influence of their "citizen journalism" grow in Canada as it did in the US, quickly debunked the accusation however. They pointed out that Harper had suggested the military be deployed for national emergencies such as restoring power and providing relief to those caught in the 1998 Montreal ice storms.

One commentator, who identified himself only as "Dave" said he had spent 21 years in Canada’s military and that he felt "hurt beyond belief," at the implication that Canada’s armed forces would be complicit in anti-democratic activities.

# posted by Squach : 6:54 PM   |