Is the Conservative party going after Trudeau’s masculinity?

Attack ads are pretty par for the course during election season, to the point where it’s become more common for people to vote against someone than to vote for someone. Going negative isn’t just expected: it’s the only way to win an election at this point.

Chances are, you’ve probably seen this commercial, which features Justin Trudeau stripping while glitter flies around his name. Oh Conservative party, you truly put the B in subtle.

Turns out, that “strip show” was for charity, most of those accusations were complete misrepresentations, and according to the Star, the accompanying flyer really hammers in the anti-femme/homophobic undertones.

The flyer produced for Conservative MPs to be sent to constituents contains several negative bullet points about Trudeau that are written in a cursive font, while the points lauding Prime Minister Stephen Harper are in a bolder print font.

The letter “i” in Trudeau’s first name is capped with a star in the Conservative materials — like a pre-teen girl might apply to her name.

[…] “I think (the ads) are meant to weaken his standing particularly among middle-aged men, who are really the core of the Conservative government’s coalition, so they’re trying to shore that up … the idea that this guy’s not a man’s man, and maybe therefore not worthy of our vote,” said Coletto.

So a guy who isn’t stereotypically masculine or straight can’t be the leader of Canada? Cute, cute bitches. There’s a reason this ad has gone over so poorly that people are donating to the Liberals: because this shit is just high school cattiness on a nationwide platform. I get that going negative is kind of a prerequisite, but this is just immature.

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