B.C. NDP attack ad slams Liberal candidates

The B.C. NDP has released a new online commercial that labels B.C. Liberal leadership candidates as mere copies of outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell.

"Something's wrong with the B.C. Liberal photocopier," the commercial's narrator says, as colour pictures of MLAs Kevin Falcon, Mike de Jong and George Abbott and former MLA Christie Clark are loaded into the machine.

But the ad shows that all that comes out of the photocopier are black-and-white pictures of Campbell.

"All the candidates were key players in Gordon Campbell's government," the narrator says. "We can't afford more of the same, the same, the same."

The ad,released on YouTube and by email, targets all of the Liberal frontrunners and makes no mention of candidates MLA Moira Stilwelland Parksville Mayor Ed Mayne.

The NDP says it's trying to get out "the full truth" about the Liberal leadership candidates, said party provincial secretary, Jan O'Brien.

"We're shining a light on them," O'Brien told CBC News Thursday. "A light you're not going to see on their own website."

But Liberal strategist Alise Mills said the ads' concept is "stale" and that it says more about the NDP than the Liberals.

"I think that they're the type of ads that we used to see in the 90s," said Mills. "[The NDP] haven't redefined who they are. They haven't redefined their message. There's no narrative to that."

The Liberals vote Feb. 26 for their new leader, who will be sworn in as premier and form a new government within days of being chosen.

The B.C. NDP votes for its new leader Apr. 17.