Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae says the party can't leave "jerks" on Canada's right-wing to take up all the space on the airwaves after the Conservatives released a new attack ad against him last week.

Rae says the Liberals are considering how to fight back and have raised more than $225,000 in response to a Conservative attack ad, which was posted to Youtube on March 19, that trashed his record from when he was the NDP premier of Ontario between 1990 and 1995.

"You can't just abandon the airwaves to the jerks on the right-hand side of the spectrum," Rae said, sparking confusion among the reporters around him.

"Did you say jerks?" one asked.

"I said jerks, yeah," Rae said. "What did you think I said?"

Rae also railed against the government spending public money on ads to promote itself.

"It costs them a million dollars to just put together an ad. A million bucks for a 30-second spot in which all they do is just pat themselves on the back. How much of this do we need? It’s ridiculous," he said.

Rae has previously spoken out against young workers in the prime minister's office, referring to them as "the 25-year-old jihadis in the prime minister's office."

Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey responded in an email to CBC News that the party stands by its ad and that it was in response to Rae's own call for a conversation on his record.