OTTAWA–Any Canadian citizen who has lived outside the country can legitimately run for the country's top job, Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged yesterday.

Pressed repeatedly on whether the negative Conservative party ads slamming Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff for his time out of the country represent his own view, Harper dodged a direct answer four times in a Halifax television interview.

Harper defended the campaign's claim that Ignatieff is "Just Visiting," saying the source for the ad material is "strictly Mr. Ignatieff's own words and own record, so he's the one who has to answer questions on that."

CTV host Steve Murphy asked Harper a fifth time about his personal view. "Do you think that he is in any sense disqualified from aspiring to be prime minister because he has been out of the country?"

Harper stammered, and reluctantly disavowed the main thrust behind his national ad campaign, which just ended its broadcast run.

"Every, every, every, obviously every Canadian citizen's eligible to run for office," Harper said. "But obviously our records, motives, statements, all these things will be under scrutiny, they always are, of all party leaders in an election campaign."

Asked if he thought the ads "were working," Harper said "that's really for party officials who worry about that," but he suggested the ads had at least one desired effect.

"To the extent that I think the ads have made the Liberal party think twice about having an election, I think that's been a good result," he said.

The Conservative party ads attack Ignatieff for "Just Visiting" after spending more than 30 years outside the country as a professor, journalist and author. The overt message is Ignatieff is running for his own interests, not those of the country.

The Harper interview was conducted by the same TV host who last fall broadcast a campaign interview with then-Liberal leader Stéphane Dion in which Dion stumbled over an awkwardly phrased question about the economy. The network's decision to air that interview was recently criticized as unfair by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

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