Prelude to an election? Tories launch attack ads over so-called iPod tax

The federal Conservative Party of Canada this afternoon said it will soon pay to air a series of radio ads in which it attacks the opposition “coalition” for what the Tories say is their support for an “iPod Tax” of up to $75.

Some in Ottawa have suggested that when the Conservative Party, which has more money than it can likely spend during an election campaign, starts to burn off a bit of the cash overflowing in its vaults with some pre-writ attack advertising, we may take that as part of the 'softening up' bombast that could very likely come just before some kind of election call. Now, I do not detect a hint of prevarication among Tories when they tell me they are not planning to engineer their own defeat in the new year. You, dear reader, are certainly entitled to call me naive and/or you simply may not trust anything a Conservative tells you. Fair enough. But this ad could also be a pre-emptive strike from the Tories in case any opposition parties were getting any funny ideas.

And, in any event, as I mentioned, the Tories have tons of cash to burn so what the heck …

But if there is to be some pre-election posturing, I think it a fair role for reporters to play a “reality check” role on the propaganda that is likely to come out from all quarters and so, in that spirit, let me note the following:

• The Tories say evidence of an opposition coalition can be found in a motion passed by the House of Commons Heritage Committee to explore the idea of levy on iPods and MP3 players. True enough: All Liberal, Bloc, and NDP members voted in favour of that but so did the Conservative MP who chairs the committee: Gary Schellenberger, your coalition membership card is in the mail! [Read more about that vote, with the link to the minutes of the meeting where the vote was held here]
• By coincidence, on the same day the Tories released the iPod tax attack ad,  the Liberal Party of Canada released its official response to C-32, the copyright bill that would contain any new fees consumers would pay to artists. In a release outlining its response, Liberal MP Marc Garneau is, it seems to me, unequivocal about the so called iPod tax: “The Liberal Party does not support the iPod levy.  It is not sustainable in a world of changing technology, and is unpopular with consumers. Canadians are already using multipurpose media devices to listen to music, like Blackberries, iPhones, iPads and computer livestreaming, on which the levy would not apply.”