Using the free-mail privileges of MPs, the Conservatives sent out flyers to ridings with large Jewish communities, arguing they are committed to Canada's Jewish Community and the Liberals are not.
MPs have voted to put a stop to the practice of mailing taxpayer-funded political flyers to voters outside their own ridings.
In a surprisingly close result, MPs passed Tuesday a Liberal motion to scrap the so-called ten percenters by a vote of 140-137.
New Democrats, who had argued in favour of retaining the right to communicate with voters all across the country, ended up supporting the motion, which included several other proposals aimed at saving the government more than $1-billion annually.
The Bloc Quebecois also supported it while Conservatives, who've made the most use of the mailouts, were opposed.
The controversial ten percenters - so named because MPs can send one-page flyers to distant voters in numbers equal to 10 per cent of the electors in their own ridings - are estimated to cost up to $10-million each year.
Unlike other opposition motions that the government can ignore, Liberals maintain Tuesday's motion is binding. It was worded as a directive to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the board of internal economy, which set the rules for MPs' mailing privileges.
The flyers have been the source of considerable tension among the various parties over the last couple of years. They've been used increasingly to launch vicious partisan attacks against political opponents.
The Tories last fall distributed a flyer in ridings with large Jewish populations, which inferred that Liberals are anti-Semitic.
They sent another into Bloc Quebecois ridings, suggesting the separatist party is soft on pedophiles.
And they sent another into rural ridings chiding opposition MPs deemed to be supportive of the long-gun registry, even though a number of the targeted MPs were actually opposed to the registry.
At the height of last fall's H1N1 flu scare, Liberals sent a flyer into ridings with large aboriginal populations accusing the government of providing body bags instead of vaccine.
In addition to scrapping the ten percenters, the Liberal motion called on the Conservatives to scale back government advertising, travel, the use of outside consultants and the size of the federal cabinet.