Two TV solitudes

On the heels of earlier Conservative English-language TV ads that attacked new Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion as "not a leader" and questioned his record on the environment, come three new French-language spots showing a bit more creativity and an aggressive push for Quebec votes.

In the first, called Domino, a teetering red Liberal domino sets sets off a line of falling white dominoes inscribed with labels such as "prosperity" and "social justice," as a narrator disparages the Liberals for all that would fall under their rule. The dominoes stop falling when they run into a solid Tory blue monolith.

Porte shows a plain wooden door, embossed with the Liberal Party of Canada sign and wrapped  in yellow police tape labelled with hot-button Quebec topics like "Pollution" and "Centralization." Suddenly, Dion campaign signs and the paper cutout heads of Dion and Jean Chrétien try to poke out, as the narrator paints Dion as a backroom politician and the Liberals' door closed to everyone else.

TV Vente is an "as seen on TV"-style ad playing on the old Liberal sponsorship scandal to show a government for sale. The ads end with the promise that under the Conservatives, Quebec will "prends des forces" or "gain strength."

Oops!

Here’s something that makes you wonder if the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

When Premier Dalton McGuinty and his cabinet decided to change next fall’s general election date to Oct. 10 this week, they forgot to change it in copies of "a personal message from Dalton" to hundreds of delegates to their weekend policy convention in Niagara Falls.

In both official languages, it still has the old election date of Oct. 4 — the one that stood for two years before they realized it fell on a Jewish holiday.

In the letter, McGuinty encourages delegates to "engage in a dynamic exchange of thoughts and information."

Let’s hope they get this date thing figured out in time.