Miss two days and what happened? Not much. There is a rather self-congratulatory (or perhaps, in the parlance of the blogosphere, community-congratulatory) post at DD about the role of bloggers in the election and how the MSM just doesn't get it(!). I live under no such illusions and rather …

Even though I totally rule the Google search for "Canada Votes" amongst, you know, the semi-pro semi-literate set, forgetting those bulky government and media sites ahead of me...yet I am bored. I have no idea how I will vote. Someone polled me by phone for the Tories tonight and I didn't even …

The Toronto Star has a useful page on the various pollsters, tracking their output sensibly over time, setting out the results from 30 different polls since the elections call. What do you notice? First, Nanos Research is really seeing something different than the others with the Tory lead ranging …

Have you noticed how Stephen Harper can't really throw the dirty gutter talk with the rest of them? As a man with an MA in economics, hallmark of the solitary, I suppose it is reasonable to understand his lack of the gift of the gab but it is a bit sad when he slams those who oppose his crime …

Wall Street welfare. That's what I have heard it called - imagine the insensitivity. Just because it is centred upon ensuring those who messed up get to both control the solution and be the sole beneficiaries of the solution. How can people be so cruel. David Brooks in the NYT stokes the flames of …

Liberals release election platform that is not entirely nuts and promises a balanced budget. Check. Ho hum. Tories determine outing 14 year old criminals by name will be a useful deterrent of some sort. Check. Hum ho.Duceppe says Ottawa does not understand Quebec. Check. Hum Hum. The polls are all …

Why do people say these things? Unplugged? Does he mean doing an acoustic set or being taken off life support? In either case, I don't think Liberal spokesperson Senator Jim Munson (who? that's who!) meant either when he was describing today's planned unveiling of the Grit platform, as reported by …

Just thinking...but investigating this one web page's worth of information would sure make for a quality week off.

Interesting how many candidates are falling by the wayside this election, how many parties are not tolerating unacceptable statements. As Robert notes, now we have Toronto Conservative candidate Chris Reid let go for his opinions arising after the terrible terrible events that led to the death of …

Aside from the personal calamity involved, I am a bit unclear about the intent of this headline:

I heard a very helpful investment talk show on WHAM 1180 AM from Rochester this morning. WHAM, you will recall from five years ago(!), is the station with a call in show on wine, an amazing concept. Anyway, this morning the WHAM voices explained the meaning of things like "mortgage-backed …

Ben started it. He made reference to "conservatism" - a concept that, as far as I am concerned, does not exits. It's a grouping of different, divergent and sometimes contradictory ideas. The odder idea is "liberalism" which is a word referencing non-being used by people who espouse "conservatism" …

Now? I hope the vote plays out like this:  •  CPC - 124Grits - 103Bloq - 51NDP - 29Other - 1  •  You get my point, right? Dullsville. Could there be a duller election? How could that be? Hmmm...maybe all parties could declare we are getting out of Afghanistan, no change to health care, announce …

One of the more actually useful things on the internet is the opportunity to find family records of some sort. Three years ago I found - and bought - a picture of my Grannie who passed away over 50 years ago. Eldest brother has been doing some digging as has Faither and an interesting observation …

This poses an important question: given we are all incredible stupid at exactly the wrong moments, should we hold public figures more accountable for being dopes? Consider the humour employed by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz leveraging the listeria crisis, a crisis which has occurred under his …

It has officially begun. The long knives are out. Warren Kinsella was on CBC Radio's Ontario Morning explaining what Hans and Sean, both Liberal card carriers¹ if you don't have a program, were going on about yesterday. Dion's people are Martin's people and they don't want Chretien's people back …

One billion! Jack is going to spend one billllllion dollars. And for what? Med students!  •  Speaking at Dalhousie University's medical school, Mr. Layton said an NDP government would spend an average of $200-million a year to increase training spaces and help provinces expand their medical …

Like Quasimodo screaming about the bells, it's all about the polls this morning and how they suggest results vary between a slim conservative majority and another minority. But what they also talk about is how imprecise polling is as a science...and, ok, that no one is warming to Dion.  •  What …

Stephen Harper has an eye for the use of history. It's a means to illustrate a desired image. But is he concerned enough about actual history? He spoke yesterday about creating the notion that conservatism is something that has an exclusive hold on certain elements of the Canadian identity - yet …

Is it that they know how they work or what they can do for you? The usually astute and not really diatribal Robert over at A Dime A Dozen Political Blog posted about the use of Google ads by the NDP as if the NDP learned who you were through the process. Fear of Google ads is pretty 2002 or so …

There is a certain pattern to elections. The days come and go and within only a few days some patterns seem to appear. Generalities. Themes. Motifs, even. So far in this one the main theme I see is that the Liberals have not collapsed through their own sheer incompetency. I think we all had …

Here is what I wrote in September 2001. The quiet from the lack of jet traffic in the skies over PEI still strikes me.

One of the great things about a Canadian election is learning how many ways the same thing can be put. From the right-wing to the left-wing is a span of about a nanometre on the scale of political ideologies. Our neo-cons support socialist programs in health care and business development, our …

The Liberals must be loving this. Everything so far is about how Dion is not as bad as made out to be. First, we learn he has a hearing issue: so he is not the risk the Tory ads would tell you. Then, now he's outdoorsy: so not an inept bookish dweeb the Tory ads say. And, now, he wears no bird …

I don't know about you but leaning your arm on a baby's head is a bit thoughtless, even if you are wearing the "hey, I'm a guy just like you" sweater. Except I don't wear those sweaters...not since 1989 at least. That's why I think leaning on a baby's head is a bit thoughtless. And you know what …

Being Canada's favorite swing voter, it's sad to see that Mr. Harper has begun with a great big fib, caught so plainly by the Edmonton Sun:  •  ...it’s Harper’s Conservatives who are likely to prove most adept at demonizing their opponents. For almost two years, the Tories have kept up a barrage …

I had no idea:  •  The government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is making waves far off American shores. China is watching the events closely because some 10 percent of China's gross domestic product is invested with the troubled mortgage giants."  •  That makes for a rather dependent …

David has begged for the election pool to be announced and we are happy to be the blog that provides what Canadians want. So:  •  What will be the state of the House of Commons come 15 October 2008?Bonus question: which party leader faces his last election and why?  •  Do you want to identify who …

I was flipping channels last night and caught Andrew Coyne on TVO's news show The Agenda as part of a panel. He was lamenting the actual record of Stephen Harper as a conservative and listed a few items like the ignoring his own fixed election law and keeping an unelected Senator in the …

...and especially for you, little Jimmy.  •  We stayed up again for a speech. I like speeches so I am something of a sucker but I thought there was just the right measure of menace and warning to the Republican party that my expectation that he would govern as an unfettered independent remains in …

It seems a weird plank to take into an election but the Mayor of the municipality that includes Walkerton Ontario makes an interesting observation:  •  Bagnato, mayor of the municipality that includes the town of Walkerton, said in a news release from his office Friday that three federal ministers …

I have admitted I have a slight crush but am more amazed by the strength of anger focused on Mrs. Palin from some Democrats and also perhaps the degree of adoration by certain Republicans. There is a very good article in The New York Times - that bastion of leftiest lies - entitled "The Unusual …

No! Nay! No Nay Never!!! Why should she? Just because she has a normally whacked life is that any excuse for this sort of reporting by Ibbitson today?  •  "We have not scheduled Wednesday and Thursday," Mr. Mendelsohn told reporters. "So I couldn't tell you what is confirmed and what is not …

A comment maker wrote that this morning over at Ben's and I think it works quite well for where we are at. It appears we are going to have a Federal election over exactly nothing. Thoughts? Here are mine.  •  Forgetting that it might be illegal, the idea that an election is ultimately unnecessary …

It was seeing photos from last year that got me going - 22,545 sit-ups since 23 September 2007 plus a whole bunch of other stuff. Yet, as far as I can tell, I probably have not changed my outline all that much. Hmmm. Could it be the beer? Really? Well, I suppose I might as well have started …