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The reality is that when it comes to election campaigns, Liberals and the truth are always like two ships passing in the night.

That was hilariously illustrated in the 2006 campaign by then-Liberal prime minister Paul Martin and Co., as they were going down to defeat at the hands of Harper and the Conservatives.

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The Martin campaign unleashed a series of attack ads against Harper, one of which was so over-the-top — alleging Harper would use “soldiers with guns” to take over Canadian cities — that the Liberals had to abandon it before it officially aired.

The reason was that public reaction to advance media reports about the ad didn’t provoke fear in the public — which is what the Liberal war room was hoping for — but a national fit of laughter.

What Harper had actually talked about was having battalions of up to 500 soldiers and reservists stationed near major Canadian cities so they would be readily available to help out during natural disasters or for rapid deployment elsewhere.

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Needless to say, Harper did not attempt to take over Canadian cities by using soldiers with guns during his nine years in power from 2006-15.

In this election, as in previous ones, the Liberals have been mining social media — all parties do it — to uncover past tweets and Facebook postings of Conservative candidates which the Liberals say demonstrate they hold racist, homophobic, Islamophobic and misogynistic views.

Of course, the Liberals have their own political skeletons.