Harper's attack ads were an extreme form of US type partisanship which have never been seen before in Canada, back to the time of Macdonald.

Harper ran his attack on opposition leader ads for YEARS and well outside of the writ of election being dropped.  Anyone not in politics would have sued Harper for his smears, but politicians cannot do so.

(And really - still with the gripe about soldiers in the streets ad - that didn't run even though it was at least made to run during the election.  And if you recall it was on policy, specifically Harper's foolish idea to re-incorporate bases into major cities like Vancouver on the lie that soldiers were "first responders".  So foolish an idea even Harper abandoned it.)