OTTAWA – Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has taken to YouTube -- to blast the Conservatives for their latest wave of attack ads.

His little speech, running less than two minutes on YouTube, comes a day after a Conservative MP in British Columbia, Cathy McLeod, was quoted in a Kamloops paper -- also speaking out against her own party's negative ads.

"Unfortunately, it seems the tactics have success or otherwise they wouldn't do this – but again do I like it, no," McLeod is quoted as saying in the newspaper, Kamloops This Week. "I'm responsible for how I conduct myself and I haven't been able to change the world."

Meanwhile, in the YouTube video that started popping up on Internet sites today, Ignatieff describes the ads as "spite and spin"and says that by attacking him for living out of the country, the Conservatives have also attacked other Canadians who were born or lived abroad.

"I have lived and worked outside this country, just like millions of other Canadians and I'm proud of what I've achieved, always as a proud Canadian," says Ignatieff. "But to Stephen Harper, to the Conservative party, Canadians who've lived outside the country are less Canadian because of it. Tell that to new Canadians born outside this country. Are they less Canadian because of it?"

Ignatieff, who is portrayed in the ads as "just visiting" from his former homes in the United States and Britain, says: "I'm not the issue. Right now Canadians are worried about their jobs, about whether they can get EI or skills training." He says the Conservatives are trying to "change the channel" from the current economic crisis, for fear they'll be blamed for not doing enough.

Ryan Sparrow, a spokesperson for the Conservative party, said the Liberal leader is evading the point of their ads.

"The issue is not that Ignatieff worked outside the country," Sparrow said in an email. "The issue is that while outside the country he slammed Canada, Canadians and our flag - and perhaps most disturbingly - admitted that he would (again) leave Canada if unsuccessful in his political career. In other words, he's just visiting. Canadians should be able to expect more from their Prime Minister."

Ignatieff also speaks out in the video against the whole tactic of negative ads -- which Liberals have used themselves in the past, and which Conservatives have accused them of using recently on the Internet.

"Look, we need a new kind of politics, a better kind of politics, a politics that relies not on spite and spin but on civility and common purpose. That's what's demanded of us," Ignatieff says.

Jill Fairbrother, spokesperson for Ignatieff, said the YouTube video is a response to public demand.

"We have had feedback that many people are offended by the ads, particularly in some of Canada's multicultural communities, so we wanted to send a message directly from the leader," Fairbrother said. "This Government would like to make Michael Ignatieff the issue. But he's not the issue because he's not the leader of the Government. The issue is Canadians who are concerned about getting the economy turned around."