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Justin Trudeau knows the Conservative attack ads against him may ultimately be effective, but says he won’t resort to using them to strike back at Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The federal Liberal leader says the ads, which brand him as inexperienced but with good hair, breed cynicism among already cynical voters.

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“My desire to not use attack ads is not because I don’t think they can work. I know they work to help you get elected,” Trudeau said in an interview Friday.

“I just also know they hurt your ability once you are in government to actually govern. … I think Canadians have had quite enough of that approach to politics.”

He singled out one Conservative ad attacking his opposition to bombing Syria and Iraq for particularly harsh rebuke.

“The idea of a major political party — let alone the party in government — using terrorism as a way to gain votes in an advertisement for political advantage is incredibly distasteful, to put it mildly,” he said.

Trudeau said his party will buy ads that contrast Liberal policy with that of rival parties, but he “won’t be talking about beards or hair.”

He conceded he will be taking a risk.

“There certainly is evidence to say that you can scare people into voting one way or another,” he said. “I am choosing to show there is a better way — a different way of doing that — and I know there’s a certain risk involved in it.”