Conservatives unleash attack ads as Justin Trudeau set to debut as Liberal leader

Conservatives unleash attack ads as Justin Trudeau set to debut as Liberal leader

Insane

Justin Trudeau set to debut as Liberal leader

OTTAWA—The new lineup of Canadian politics — and a preview of the next election — unfolds Monday as newly crowned Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau takes his place in Parliament.

Trudeau will join the leaders from the two other major political parties — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair — in a question period session that promises a taste of the debates leading up to next federal vote.

But federal Conservatives fired their first salvo at Trudeau even before the Liberal leader could take his seat in the front benches of the House of Commons.

In an attack ad aired Monday morning, the Conservatives take aim at Trudeau’s experience, suggesting the 41-year-old is in “over his head.”

“Justin Trudeau. He was born with a famous name but does he have the judgment to be prime minister,” says one ad.

Another video talks up Harper’s economic record while poking fun at Trudeau’s past jobs as a camp counsellor, rafting instructor and drama teacher, adding, “and now he thinks he can run Canada’s economy.”

Trudeau took the leadership of the third-place party in a landslide on Sunday.

In his acceptance speech, Trudeau predicted the Conservatives would be unleashing the kind of attack ads that undermined past Liberal leaders Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff.

“The Conservative Party will now do what it does. It will try to spread fear. It will sow cynicism,” he said.

But he predicted the campaign would fail, saying that Canadians are “tired of the negative, divisive politics of Mr. Harper's Conservatives.”

Trudeau was preparing for his first day in the House of Commons Monday as Liberal leader and the mid-afternoon question period. Both Mulcair and Harper were expected to be present as well.