Of course, Jean Chretien was Prime Minister last year, and offered to send 800 ground troops to Iraq, before withdrawing the offer at the last minute. But then, the Liberals never have been too hung up on principle, or consistency. Or grammar, it appears.

Not that we are ever likely to see the ad, nor the others the Liberals are reported to be testing ("If Stephen Harper becomes PM, you'll have two health care options: Be rich. Or don't get sick."). They are so crude, so over the top they would be more than likely to discredit themselves. But other, subtler attacks will follow: indeed, the leaking of these unofficial ads may well have been intended to make the official ones seem sober by comparison.

There's a lesson in this, or rather two. One is of the barrenness of the Liberal campaign. A Prime Minister who came to office promising transformative change, a destiny that is ours to hold, a politics of achievement, etc. has been reduced to recycling that ageless Liberal cliche, "the Tories will take away your health care." Of all the humiliations Paul Martin has endured since he took power, this must surely be the worst: Not only is he no better a Prime Minister than Jean Chretien, he's not even a better man.

There's the same dishonesty, the same thuggery, the same appeal to convenient prejudices as in the 2000 election: only whereas last time the target was Alberta, this time it's the United States. Harper would have joined "the U.S. invasion" of Iraq. Harper wants "U.S.-style health care." The same government that claims to want a "more sophisticated" relationship with the Americans is basing its whole election campaign on rank anti-Americanism. Did you miss it? I know at least one former ambassador who did not.

But the ads speak as eloquently of the barrenness of the Conservative campaign, at least as it has been revealed to us to date. Ever since the merger, and even more since Mr. Harper was elected leader, the Tories have been going to great lengths to emphasize how "moderate" they are -- how inoffensively dull, how blamelessly bland, how utterly unlike their predecessors. Indeed, the makeover has been under way for more than four years, ever since the Reform Party -- a name rich in history for a party that, despite its short life, made history -- pureed itself into the anodyne Canadian Alliance.

Before he became leader, Mr. Harper used to complain with some justice that no one knew what the Alliance stood for. But the same could be said of the "new" Conservatives, as they have taken to calling themselves. About all they will tell us is what they won't do: They won't cut spending, or not so much that anyone would notice. They won't deviate from the Canada Health Act. They won't throw away $100-million on their friends. Above all, they won't do anything extreme, or radical, or indeed noteworthy.

And what is their reward for all this dutiful pusillanimity? To be savaged by Joe Clark as "dangerous" and demonized in several million dollars worth of Liberal attack ads as a threat to life and limb. Granted, this would have happened whatever position the party had taken. But in for a penny, in for a pound: If you're going to be traduced regardless, you might as well say what you really mean.

And that's the worst part about the Liberal attacks: Deep down, beneath all the overkill and spin and outright lies, they touch upon something true. No, Mr. Harper isn't dangerous. Under a Harper government, health care would not be reserved for the rich. But he isn't as aimless as he pretends, either. He has a set of principles, a philosophy of government, to which he has dedicated his political life, and which differ sharply from those of the ruling Liberals. If elected he would make fundamental changes in the way Canada was governed. Only for whatever reasons, he and his handlers have elected not to tell us that.

In fact, it's not clear that the Liberals would be able to mount the same attacks had the Conservatives taken a more forthright stand. It isn't just that, in the absence of real information, slander fills the void. It's that everything we have heard from the Conservatives reads like one long apology. Vote Conservative, their campaign theme might as well be: Not Extreme. Which only invites their audience to assume the contrary.