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I love Margaret Atwood. I remember nearly losing it for laughing during an oral book report in high school relaying the funeral scene in Life Before Man, being stunned when I finished the Handmaiden’s Tale as a young undergraduate, and adoring the uniqueness of the Penelopiad last year. Imagine my surprise when this woman, who I’d characterise as a large influence on my development as a feminist, said she’d vote Bloc if given the chance as there’s no real alternative in Quebec.

[Read more…] about The Bloc has Margaret Atwood’s vote (but not mine)

One of the perennial criticisms of Canada’s two big brokerage parties (oftentimes levelled by NDP leaders) is that they’re really tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum parties: They stand for essentially the same things and govern accordingly. The 1993 federal election was supposed to have changed all that, but alot of the speculation about Harper trying to construct a moderate, centrist party raised the spectre of a return to the days of Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum.

[Read more…] about The Conservatives and Liberals as Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum?

It’s been interesting listening to the post-debate analyses. One theme keeps coming up and that is that Elizabeth May impressed a lot of people. As Andrew Coyne pointed out in the CBC’s post-debate "At Issue" panel, the debate cemented the Greens’ place on the national stage. Talking to people around here, I’m surprised to hear the chord that the Greens seem to be striking with a lot of people. Some of this is a "none of the above" vote; the Greens have never been in power anywhere and are fresh and new, so people see this as a way of registering dissatisfaction. Other people find their policies refreshing: it’s pro-environmental and socially progressive without without the baggage of the traditional NDP.

[Read more…] about Will the NDP wake up and respond to the threat the Greens pose?

The Engish debate was actually pretty entertaining. I took a few peeks at the replay of the US Vice-Presidential debate and I actually thought the Canadian debate was more interesting. I actually thought all five party leaders were reasonably effective and the debate clarified a few things in the election. I’m not going to talk about Gilles Duceppe: he’s a good debater, but basically irrelevant for the English debate.

[Read more…] about English debate: Harper gets pounded, but nothing that essentially changes the campaign

Tonight is the big show: the English language debate at 9 Eastern/6 Pacific. The dynamics here are a little different than in French. The Conservatives are in a stronger position outside of Quebec, so Harper mainly has to stay out of trouble. I imagine we’ll see the relaxed prime-ministerial sweater vest version of Stephen Harper again. All four leaders will be gunning for Harper again. I don’t expect we’ll see the NDP and Liberals squabble too much over who is the real opponent to Harper. The way the Conservatives are poised to break through in British Columbia means they both have to dump on Harper big time. Harper just has to weather the storm. It’s pretty much impossible for an incumbent prime minister to "win" the debate; you win by not losing, which is about the best you can hope for.

[Read more…] about English debate preview: pressure on Dion and Layton

A CanWest/Global National poll of francophone voters found that Dion won the debate, Duceppe finished second, and Harper third. The sample size (637) was fairly small, but that’s still an interesting and somewhat surprising finding. I didn’t think Harper was that bad, but perhaps the "sit back and look prime ministerial" approach didn’t play as well in French as it did in translation.
[Read more…] about Poll names Dion winner of French debate