OTTAWA — The Liberals have been accusing the Conservatives of "turning their backs on Ukraine," and now the party is making that argument in attack ads running in more than a dozen Prairie ridings that are home to large Ukrainian communities.
The newspaper ads appearing in 18 Conservative-held ridings say Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party are abandoning the war-torn country because they voted against a bill to implement a modernized Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.
The black-and-white ads feature the faces of Prairies-based Tory MPs alongside Poilievre and large font that reads "abandoning Ukraine."
A spokesperson for the Liberal party said in a statement that the Conservatives are "turning their backs on Ukraine in its time of need."
"In these challenging global times, Canadians need a proven leader who will fight for Canada's interests on the world stage and stand with our allies," said Parker Lund, who confirmed this is the first newspaper ad campaign the Liberals have launched in a year.
Starting Wednesday, the ads were expected to appear in four newspapers, including Yorkton This Week, the Winnipeg Sun, Sherwood Park News and the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
Asked for comment on the ads, a spokesperson for Poilievre accused the Liberals of using the campaign to divide and distract Canadians.
"(Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau and his out-of-touch Liberals are desperate to distract from the misery and pain they are inflicting on Canadians after eight years in power," Sebastian Skamski said in a statement Wednesday.
Skamski also reaffirmed his party's support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders.
The trade legislation is still awaiting a final vote in the House of Commons.
They are not the only ones calling on the Conservatives to revisit their position, with Ukraine's ambassador and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress also calling on Poilievre to support the bill.
Former Conservative cabinet minister and MP Peter Kent also spoke out against how the Opposition party voted, saying on social media that partisan politics were trumping "principled unity and support for a valiant democracy."
The Conservatives have said they oppose the legislation because of language in the negotiated agreement that promises both countries will "promote carbon pricing."
Both Canada and Ukraine already have their own carbon pricing plans.
The Tory attack line on carbon pricing is a red herring, said Carlene Variyan, a Liberal strategist at Summa Strategies and former Liberal staffer.
"I have not heard of one Canadian who has bought that line, and I don't think that they are going to be successful in using that as an excuse or scapegoat," she said.
But while the Conservatives have made some missteps on this file, their position is not about Ukraine or its war, argued Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Calgary's Mount Royal University.
"The Conservatives would like to vote against anything that includes the word 'carbon,' and that was just caught in that file," he said.
Poilievre has repeatedly defended his party's track record on Ukraine in the House of Commons, arguing that his party pushed for Canada to send Ukraine lethal weaponry even before Russia launched its full-scale invasion early last year and promising that "we will stand for Ukrainians."
For Bratt, it's all about the Liberals looking for a chink in the Conservatives' armour at a time when the Tories are getting more and more popular.
"The Liberals are trailing badly in the polls and this is one sort of green shoot they can see that they're trying to exploit," Bratt said.
"I just don't think it's going to work."
The Liberals have been trying to make hay out of the Tories' position on the Ukraine trade deal for weeks.
With their new campaign, they are explicitly linking the Conservative MPs to what the newspaper ads describe as "far-right politicians" in the United States — and not for the first time.
Support for Ukraine has long been strong on Capitol Hill. But the persistent flow of U.S. military and government aid is falling out of favour with some Republican lawmakers, as well as some Americans.
Against that backdrop, Trudeau has accused Poilievre of playing into the Kremlin's hands.
His government House leader, Karina Gould, claimed in a recent interview with The Canadian Press that in a way, it's a "gift" for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Because he's seeing division and wavering support for Ukraine, and I think Conservative MPs really need to think about that," she said.
In recent weeks, Liberals have also attacked Poilievre on social media for referring to Ukraine as a "faraway foreign land" during question period in the House of Commons earlier this month.
Partisans have linked Poilievre's language to that of former U.S. president Donald Trump.
They have also invoked British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who in 1938 infamously described Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia as a "quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing."
"Shame on them for using the language of appeasement and isolation," Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in Parliament last week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2023.
Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press
