Former Bloc MP sore loser

It’s harder to be gracious in defeat than in victory, but just as important. Defeated Bloc MP Vivian Barbot lost her cool yesterday night when it because obvious that Justin Trudeau got the better of her.

Le résultat n’est pas surprenant car nous sommes dans un fief libéral, dit Vivian Barbot. Nous savions que le résultat serait serré. Je ne peux pas commenter la campagne de M. Trudeau car il a été absent du comté. Moi, je ne l’ai pas vu en tout cas…

Basically, she can’t comment on the winner’s campaign because Mr. Trudeau was absent from the riding. Strange thing to say after you’ve been defeated… against a candidate who didn’t even need to campaign to beat you?

Harper’s spin leads to message dysfunction

I’m all for being gracious after winning an election and newly re-elected prime Minister Stephen Harper did the right thing yesterday by calling for cooperation between all parties.

However, saying that “we have shown that minority government can work, and at this time of global economic instability we owe it to Canadians to demonstrate this once again” was a bit rich, when this election was supposed to have been called because Parliament was allegedly dysfunctional.

So, why did we line up at the poll yesterday again?

Idiotes, all of them

Most Canadians go to the polls today to elect their 40th Parliament, after what is probably the country’s nastiest election campaign since the early 20th Century. What is most remarquable about it is the discovery by political parties that you can be much nastier on the Internet than on TV.

As usual, about 4 Canadians in 10 won’t vote, despite the incredible sums of money spent by the parties and Elections Canada to get them interested. Along with the word ‘democracy’, the 5th Century B.C. Athenians invented a word for citizens who did not get involved in the city’s political life: Idiotes.

The word survived in many languages, but somehow we lost the meaning. A shame.

2006-2008 voting shifts explained

All you election nuts, head over to Paul Adams’ demonstration of how people who voted for various parties plan to vote now. Do it right now. I hope we get updates of that table every week!

Most lively discussion on that topic on Paul Wells’ blog, who ripped off the other Paul’s charts. Data theft is the sincerest form of flattery, of course.

May’s Green Trans-Canada train tour following in the tracks of Laurier, Trudeau

No planes or buses for the Greens. Elizabeth May’s campaign will be crossing the country in a train car, instead of leaving a plume of greenhouse gases like the other leaders.

I think it’s a great idea. The Greens don’t have the money to fly around for six weeks, so they are trying to turn this limitation into an opportunity.

Media frames election agenda: “May the best PR win”

This  morning, a Toronto Star editorial is lamenting that “The early days of the federal election campaign have been dominated by images – mostly negative ones of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion – rather than substance.” The Globe’s headline is about process stories overshadowing policy announcements. The Ottawa Citizen’s sole front-page election text complains that there’s too much talk of gaffes and strategy in the campaign so far.

Caleton U faculty blogging about the election

The staff of Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication is making good use of that academic independence by blogging about the election campaign. Plenty of interesting posts in there. They set a strong collective rhythm – keep ‘em coming guys!

Elementary school crusade for Stephen Harper

Elizabeth Thompson reports on a rather novel approach to ad placement by the Conservatives. Could it be that they’re thinking ahead to the 2012 federal election?

Election 2008 : Debate boycott?

On her new French-language blog, veteran hack/pundit Chantal Hébert reacts to the Conservatives’ poo-pooing the idea the Greens take part in the televised debate. She gingerly suggests that maybe, just maybe, Team Harper might be setting the stage for a debate boycott.

L’équipe Harper qui n’est pas friande d’événements dont le contrôle lui échappe, surtout au profit des médias, chercherait-t-elle à mettre en place les éléments d’un boycottage conservateur des débats ? L’idée semble excessivement téméraire mais la culture d’affrontement adoptée par le parti dans ses relations avec les médias depuis son arrivée au pouvoir ne permet pas de l’exclure d’emblée.

If this came from anybody else than Hébert, I would say somebody had too much pre-election Cool-Aid. In any case, it seems Hébert won’t be speculation-shy on her blog. C’est excellent.

This is not going to be an ordinary election

Quote from Dimitri Soudas (who apparently hasn’t been totally silenced by his new boss’ expanding role) in the Globe and Mail:

We still expect it is going to be another minority government, but the question is, is it going to be a Liberal or a Conservative minority government.

I will leave to others the joy of pointing out how odd it is to go into an election to get a clear mandate from the people when the best you expect is another minority. My point is rather than it is a very un-electioneering thing to say just a few days before hitting the campaign trail. Usually it’s more along the lines of “we are absolutely confident Canadians will give us a strong majority, based on our accomplishments and the fact that our leader is a leader who leads.”

If such candideness continues throughout the campaign (hello, Kim Campbell) things might get very strange indeed.