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Has the Nasty Party turned nice? The Conservatives got personal with the last three Liberal leaders but their limp attack ads on the NDP’s Tom Mulcair have been policy based, accusing him propagating “risky theories and dangerous economic experiments.”

No mention of beards, anger management or his resemblance to a younger Fidel Castro.

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Yet this is the same crew that chased Stéphane Dion from office with the words “not a leader” ringing in his ears; the gang that induced the Pavlovian response: “Oh Michael Ignatieff, he’s just visiting” from voters across the land last year.

[np-related]

So has the Conservative war-room gone soft? Not likely, though there does seem to have been a concerted effort to not offend Canadians by going too negative.

The brain trust apparently believes that by cleaning up its act and delivering the “moderate, mainstream” government Stephen Harper promised, the Conservatives will hunker down in the political centre, leaving Mr. Mulcair and the new Liberal leader to battle for the progressive vote on the left.