The Liberals, trailing in polls during the last weeks of the campaign, resorted to strong and often questionable negative ads directed towards the Conservative party, by attempting to depict Harper as an extreme right-wing politician.
Several articles, including one by Paul Wells of Maclean's magazine, indicated that the Liberals were grasping at straws, and that not all of the comments could be proven.
This drew widespread criticism from commentators that the Liberals were scaremongering, and seemingly suggesting that the Conservatives wanted to use the military against Canadian civilians.
The comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce also created a series of parodies of the attack ads.
Examples of parodies that were printed in the National Post included: Bold indicates parties with members elected to the House of Commons.