Imagine you're an ad executive tasked with creating a commercial that illustrates your client's affinity towards Quebec sovereignty.

You have several options: you could keep it classy by simply listing the reasons your client dislikes Canada; you could list the ways an independent Quebec would prosper; or you could just play on one's emotion and show images of the fleur-de-lis with "Ô Kébèk, un hymne pour le Québec" playing in the background.

A small left-leaning party in Quebec has taken a different tack.

Quebec Solidaire's latest election ad, exposes viewers to an animated stick figure gleefully kicking Canada's national symbol — the beaver — right off their television screen.

According to The Canadian Press, Quebec Solidaire, which had just one seat in the National Assembly, has been under attack lately by opponents who accuse it of selling out the independence movement.

[ Full coverage of the 2012 Quebec election ]

Last week, former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe lashed out at Québec Solidaire leader Amir Khadir for having supported the New Democrats in the federal election.

"I cannot have much respect for people who wrap themselves up in this word (sovereignist) and support federalists during elections," Duceppe said.

The ad is an attempt to address those attacks.

"There are rumours that members of Quebec solidaire drape themselves in the Maple Leaf and hold questionable ties to beavers," says the ad's narrator.

"In fact, that's not quite the case...The Quebec solidaire program is very clear on the fact that it's independentist."

CP notes that the the ad ends with a joke: "Quebec solidaire says no beavers were harmed in the making of their new spot."

Animal rights groups have yet to weigh-in.