Bobert, they will do anything they can to win. Anything. And if the public is stupid enough to fall for absolute garbage, then absolute garbage is exactly what they will use.

This is also true in Canada, but sometimes the garbage backfires. For instance, our presently ruling Conservative Party tried to get mileage out of showing some pictures of a bird (a Puffin) shitting on the Liberal Party candidate for Prime Minister! (as if it would matter who a bird shat on...)

It backfired. The public got mad about it, and the Conservative leader (our present prime minister) had to issue an official apology. It was a minor blip in the election, though. He'll probably win anyway, because the "liberal" vote here is presently divided between three different parties, while the conservative vote pretty well all goes to the Conservatives.

Thus about 40% of the Canadian electorate ends up winning an election over the other 60% of the Canadian electorate.

Interesting system we have in place here, eh? ;-)