Brothels, shackles and marijuana feature in Canada election ads

By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper on Wednesday defended an election ad that claimed his
main rival wanted to set up brothels - the latest in a series of
hard-hitting commercials that have marked the campaign.
Harper's Conservatives, trailing in the run-up to the Oct.
19 election, are running newspaper ads aimed at ethnic
communities that claim the opposition Liberals want to legalize
prostitution and open brothels, and also make it easier to sell
marijuana to children.
The Liberals deny they have any such plans, but Harper said
the ads were justified and dismissed the suggestion the
Conservatives were fear-mongering.
"The other guys will claim it's fear when all we're trying
to do is draw attention to facts - facts that they're actually
not willing to talk about," he told reporters.
Conservative officials, asked about the brothel claims, say
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau once voted against a proposed law
aimed at clamping down on prostitution.
"I think it's up to Mr. Harper to explain why he's choosing
to mislead Canadians about me," Trudeau told reporters.
Ethnic communities are an important source of voters and it
is no coincidence that the Liberals are running newspaper ads
warning new Canadians that the government could strip them of
their citizenship. The Conservatives say this only applies to
those convicted of terrorism.
The New Democrats, the largest opposition party, started the
campaign with an ad showing how many Harper appointees had ended
up in trouble with the law. It ends with a shot of Harper's
former parliamentary secretary in shackles after his conviction
for violations in the last campaign.
Michael Mulvey, a marketing professor at the University of
Ottawa, said attacks ads were important because of their focus
on swing voters.
"People who are firmly entrenched ... they're not going
anywhere," he said in a phone interview.
Perhaps the most uncompromising ad was one run by the tiny
separatist Bloc Quebecois, which said NDP leader Thomas Mulcair
wanted to flood the province of Quebec with Muslim women who
wear face veils.
Mulcair defends the right of Muslims to wear face coverings
during citizenship ceremonies, a stance that is unpopular with
voters. In response to the ad, Mulcair aide Karl Belanger
tweeted that the "National Front has just entered the campaign"
- a reference to France's far-right party.