So in the midst of all the gloom and doom on the economic front, some news this week that shows us some things just never change.

The Canadian Press reports that the Conservatives are getting ready to launch attack ads against Michael Ignatieff so, as one insider said, they can "poison his well."

And so the Liberals say in response they'll launch their own ads.

Well that's great news, isn't it? This is like peace on earth has broken out, that is if your idea of peace is running around and putting poison in a person's well.

So this is the state of Canadian politics right now. Every time we turn around another thousand people are thrown out of work and what's the government of the day doing? Scouring hundreds of hours of videotape, hoping Michael Ignatieff said something weird back in the eighties, when he was a late night talk show host on the BBC. Because apparently the next election, never mind the economy, is going to be defined by a 25 year old clip of Iggy interviewing the cast of Monty Python.

And how did we get here? Well it's our own fault apparently. Because if you talk to any political strategist they will tell you attack ads work. Sure Canadians don't like them, sure it means that smart people won't go into politics, but it doesn't matter to them because it works.

Well you know what? Who cares? If there's a cat stuck up in a tree and you want to get the cat down, shooting the cat works too, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

The only upside here is that unlike fixing the economy, getting rid of attack ads is simple. It won't even take billions of dollars. All it takes is three men, three men who run three political parties, to agree and say fine, from here on in no more attacks. The buck stops with them. Because ultimately guys, we're all drinking from the same well.