Canada 2011 Official Thread

[Bacon King]

Weather you consider the Liberals left or not depends on if you go by their platform, policies, and statements, or weather you go by their governing record.

Perspective is important here- by either metric they're to the left of both US parties.

[Bacon King]

God, I don't hope anybody actually reported this? Megasilly.

No, but I think Al's right in preemptively preventing this thread from revolving into a fest of partisan name-calling.

[Bacon King]

Slightly off topic I suppose, but is any party talking about electoral reform of any sort, campaigning on it at all? Do Canadians even care about the shortcomings of their FPTP system?

[Bacon King]

Have any polls asked for the second choice of voters?  I'd be interested in seeing how NDP, Green and Bloc Q voters would go.  My guess is NDP and Green would go 80-20 for Liberals over Conservatives, and Bloc Q a little less pro Grits.  I realize this is a totally theoretical issue, but with AV possibly coming into force in the UK, an interesting question nonetheless.

Not just a theoretical issue- second preferences can also relevant for tactical voting.

[Bacon King]

Does anyone know if the election will be on any channel in the US?

News channels will probably mention the winner after results are declared; I suppose there might be more coverage in news markets that border Canada.

If you really want to watch election news live, though, I'd suggest you stream a Canadian news channel from their website.

[Bacon King]

Oooh, a poll that puts Bloc second place in seats? Official opposition for them again?

Granted, I know the poll was an outlier, etc., but I can't be the only one that finds humor in having the Bloc as Her Majesty's "Loyal" Opposition.

[Bacon King]

Liberals are polling pretty consistently, but both the Conseratives and the NDP are all over the place between those different pollsters.

[Bacon King]

Who is Abacus?
A new pollster?
A pollster who changed his name?

They've been around for a while, with the same name, polling both the US and Canada. Historically though they've mostly done policy/issue polling for interested groups rather than election polls.

[Bacon King]

I think the EPP prediction may be underestimating NDP support; looking through Quebec for example there are a good number of seats where nobody has posted a prediction since March.

[Bacon King]

Also it's well run enough

Or, maybe it isn't.

Wow. How do Canadian olds typically vote?

[Bacon King]

Also it's well run enough that you wouldn't see those ridiculous long lines

Voted.

Took 45 minutes, lines were long at the polling station.

Anecdotal evidence of really high turnout? How long do you normally wait to vote Max?

[Bacon King]

Ah, thanks Max/MB.

In other news, Harper broke the law today by making campaign statements on the radio.

[Bacon King]

How does Canada do redistricting?