Paul Martin's top political adviser said yesterday the campaign is "in a spiral," as the Liberal Party started running a series of attack ads to stop the bleeding to Stephen Harper's Conservatives.
"We are in a spiral right now that we have to arrest," national campaign co-chairman David Herle told a number of Liberal MPs and candidates in a conference call yesterday afternoon.
Many Ontario MPs and candidates participated in the call and sounded desperate about their situation and that of the party.
Meanwhile, the attack ads, which began airing last night around the supper hour on Canadian Idol and Jeopardy, were tested by focus groups. They emphasize the gaffes committed by Mr. Harper and his team over issues such as abortion.
The ads feature a female voice saying that Mr. Harper wanted to take Canadian troops into Iraq, wants to limit a woman's right to choose, wants to ally with the Bloc Québécois and wants to spend heavily on military hardware.
The ad ends with Mr. Harper's line that Canadians won't recognize his Canada. The Liberal tag line is: "And he's right."
"They are devastating," Mr. Herle told the group. He said they are designed to attract the female voters. It was also noted that Mr. Martin will be making a speech to an influential women's group.
Mr. Herle has for years been one of Mr. Martin's closest advisers and one of Ottawa's most powerful backroom players as he co-ordinated the effort to push former prime minister Jean Chrétien from office. But he is now being blamed by many Liberal candidates for the struggling campaign, including the negative ads and the decision early on to ignore Chrétien loyalists.
"People are drifting to the Conservatives in an aimless fashion . . . no one is paying attention," Mr. Herle said. "We are expecting the ads to be effective. We need to shake up people . . . [stop them] from the aimless drift.
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Mr. Herle added that the Liberals need to "shake up" voters and "cause them to reconsider."
He said that despite the fact that Paul Martin has stared into a camera for two weeks and "said things" such as what his platform would do for the country and how much he would invest in it, the party and its policies have "no traction."
Mr. Herle's announcement that the Liberals were about to go negative for as "long as it takes" did not sit well with some of the MPs on the conference call. Liberal officials had said as recently as last weekend that they were loath to launch negative ads before next week's debates, fearing they could sully Mr. Martin's image at the moment Canadians are most tuned into the campaign.
But Ontario Liberals have been hit hard by the negative reaction to Premier Dalton McGuinty's budget. Many of the candidates on the conference call spoke of how difficult their experience has been with that, and offered some advice as to how to counteract it.
Revenue Minister Stan Keyes, who represents a Hamilton riding, said Liberals are being perceived as "God damn liars" and "fibberals."
He suggested a positive advertisement presenting Paul Martin in a positive light, emphasizing that he is Prime Minister, playing up his successful economic record and saying that he is "not a provincial premier."
Mr. Martin's announcements on health care, the cities and other issues have not "gotten through and resonated with voters at all," said another senior strategist.
He characterized what the party is facing as a "wall of cynicism" from voters.
The strategist argued, too, that the news media have not been shining the "spotlight on Harper" but rather on Mr. Martin, and this needs to change.
Other worried MPs and candidates told the strategists that Mr. Martin should "wear a shirt and tie," that he should "smile more" and that he's "hemming and hawing" too much.
"That is not Paul," Ottawa MP Marlene Catterall said.
"Make sure he gets some rest," another MP said.
The strategists assured the group that Mr. Martin would be positive during the debates, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, and that the campaign would end with positive advertising.
But they spent much of the call trying to convince the candidates that these ads are absolutely necessary to change the tide.
Mr. Herle said the vote is " incredibly fluid " and only 40 per cent of voters in Ontario have "made up their minds." He said research shows voters' opinion is very soft and people have drifted to the Conservative camp with no knowledge of the platform.
