This year’s election was a very interesting one for a couple of reasons. First of all, the polls closed at the same time for most of the country, with Atlantic Canada being a little bit ahead, and BC being a little bit behind. That meant that polls closed here at 7:30 local time, and at 8:30 local time in Manitoba etc. This was instituted as a sort of response to the internet. There used to be an election results blackout on local media until the polls were closed, but people would just go to “unofficial” resources on the internet to get their illicit information (which wanted to be free?) The end result is that the election was not decided before the polls closed here for a change - not that it would have been anyway, since it was such a close one overall.

Another interesting thing is that the Liberals are not only in a minority position, but when combined with the NDP (a more natural alliance than any of the others out there) they’ve got exactly half of the seats. I suspect that there will be another election within a couple of years, though it’s tough to say for sure, because the Liberals have to be a little bit scared that they might lose the whole shooting match next time out — it was a near thing for them this time.

Overall though, I’m happy with the way things turned out, as the incumbent in my riding was dethroned, which means that my MP is no longer an outsider. The previous MP had been kicked out of his party for various reasons, and that gave him approximately zero political clout. Writing him a letter accomplished nothing. I’m not saying that the new MP will be able to accomplish a whole lot more, but at least he won’t just be talking to himself in Ottawa.

[Edit] Uncle Robert - your ISP rejects mail from me because of some assinine attempt at spam filtering - just so you don’t think I’m ignoring you.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Thanks for the civics lesson. Now listen to me, if Marge Simpson goes to jail, I can kiss the chick vote goodbye. And if I go down, your gonna break my fall.” - Mayor Quimby