Hudak says when governments have been in power for a long time like Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, they won't talk about their record, so they attack others.
The Opposition Leader danced around the issue when asked at a meeting of the Radio Television News Directors Association in Waterloo if he would use attack ads during the fall campaign.
The Tory leader's staff later clarified that Hudak had been very careful in his remarks not to rule out going negative in the fall campaign.
Hudak did say the Tories will use advertising to show contrasts between the Liberal government and his party, which will be critical of Liberal policies, especially on energy prices and taxes.
Hudak said a coalition of unions calling itself the Working Families Coalition, which spends millions of dollars to back the Liberals, has already started airing attack ads portraying him as a puppet of big business.
The Tories have been fighting unsuccessfully for years to have Elections Ontario declare the Working Family Coalition a front for the Liberals.
They say the group virtually doubles the government's advertising war chest for the election.
Hudak also said getting the media's attention as an opposition leader can be a tricky and humbling experience, recounting how he was once bumped from a cable access channel in favour of a pet show.
