Hey America! Wake Up !

[Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup]

Well, maybe you guys should invade. That’ll get our attention.

Wait for winter. You’ll be able to skate right into Wisconsin and steal all our cheese before we even knew what hit us…

[Giles]

@Boo Boo Foo

I wouldn’t be too concerned Grienspace. It’s nothing new.

I recall President Jimmy Carter introducing the then Prime Minister of Australia, the Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser on the Whitehouse lawn as “Prime Minister JOHN Fraser”. That Jimmy Carter had never met the man before that day is understandable given the nature of the late 70’s. That the two had just spent three hours discussing military arrangments for the USA’s various spy stations etc on Australian soil and that Carter THEN couldn’t get Fraser’s first name right at a press conference was just plain… oh I dunno… kinda funny.

In fact, John is Malcolm Fraser’s first name – his name in full is John Malcolm Fraser. However, he is known as Malcolm Fraser. Presumably the person briefing Jimmy Carter found that John was the first name, and thought that Malcolm Fraser (like most people) used his first name rather than his second name.

[duffer]

@Ethilrist

I thought you guys had a queen to make all your decisions for you. :dubious:

Too many jokes. Must rest now.

[NDP]

Hmm. Canada. Isn’t that in Russia somewhere?

Oh come on, you know Canada! It’s where we get our discount medications!

[lissener]

Look at it this way: the news organs are produced in the big cities. So you’ll get complete coverage of big-city elections, but the major organs will rarely give the suburban elections much coverage.

Canada is a suburb of the US, so the coverage is just about what you’d expect. Look in the free papers just inside the grocery stores, there should be some information there.

[voguevixen]

@grienspace

If Blair or Fox, Chirac or Sharon faced and just survived an election American tv networks would report it .

WHO?!?*

Maybe there was something really important they had to report instead, like where the next season of “Survivor” was going to take place.**
*JOKE!

**Not a joke. This is what passes for news in the US.

[Exgineer]

Does this in any way affect the bacon supply? I get my maple syrup from Vermont, so that’s not a consideration.

[Trunk]

you must admit, its pretty easy to overlook Canada. . .all tucked away down there.

[/homer]

[Governor_Quinn]

@duffer

(Hey! A 'Merkin knows the capital!)

That must be one impressive merkin.

(BTW, if it please you any, grienspace, C-SPAN carried the CBC election broadcast, and my local newspaper (located nowhere near the Canadian border) had the results the next day.)

[Wolfian]

@grienspace

If Blair or Fox, Chirac or Sharon faced and just survived an election American tv networks would report it .

Blair is a close ally.
Chirac is controversial is many would like to see him go (I can just see all the smug grins over on Fox).
Sharon is an ally (kinda) in a volitile area.
Fox? You give us too much credit. I took me two reading to to realize you were talking about the Mexican president and not the network.

@grienspace

So what the fuck is wrong with Canada?

I don’t know what you’re talking aboot.

[Bookkeeper]

@spectrum

I saw the election results, and was very interested in them. It’s an interesting situation Martin is in – even with NDP on his side, he can’t pull a numerical majority without bringing Conservatives or Bloc Quebec members in, right? That should lead to some interesting governing, or perhaps another election in a few months.

I do think that it’s a big deal that the left-leaning candidate won. With the left-leaning candidates leading in the Australian poll, with Gordon Brown apparently lining up troops to oust Blair and pull Labour in Britain back to the left, and John Kerry generally leading by a few points in most presidential tracking polls (though Bush has an edge in the Gallup this week), it seems that the Left worldwide has found some sort of footing.

As a gay man, I’m also very interested in how this will effect the movement towards equal marriage rights in Canada.

All in all, a very interesting election.

And all on paper ballots, counted by hand, right?

Actually, in the Canadian political spectrum, the Liberals are pretty much centrist. Compared to the American spectrum, even the Conservative party is kinda left wing, however. The Liberals should be able to govern for a while with an unofficial alliance with the NDP, as the BQ will vote with them on some issues at least. One issue which hasn’t been mentioned is that although the Liberal/NDP combination fails to make an absolute majority, what really counts is a majority of MPs actually present and voting for any given vote.

I see this as benefiting same-sex marriage rights, as the NDP are in favour, while the Liberals have been pretty much neutral to avoid offending potential voters), and can now say that the NDP forced them into it. (I’m all in favour of any combination of consenting adults being able to marry. If it’s against your religion, fine, don’t do it in your church, and let the rest of us do what WE feel is morally correct.)

As for the paper ballot thing, admittedly it’s much easier when there’s only one item on the ballot.

[Abbie_Carmichael]

You’ll be able to skate right into Wisconsin and steal all our cheese before we even knew what hit us…

We’re screwed when Canada discovers Atkins!

[Cervaise]

@Ethilrist

Canada has elections?

Cheap Viagla.

[Mehitabel]

Don’t worry, few of them will, because of the 1000% markup on books up there ("$3.95, $7.95 in Canada").

In today’s NY Times, it’s on page A6, same page it was yesterday. Nice long articles. Granted, yesterday they had a rare right-across-the-whole-page headline on the Iraqi handover, and all the articles save one on the front page were about that.

[Rufus_Xavier]

@lissener

but the major organs will rarely give the suburban elections much coverage.

I coulda sworn this said “butt the major organs will rarely give the suburban erections much coverage.”

I am a troubled individual…

[SPOOFE]

So what the fuck is wrong with Canada?

We’ve been asking ourselves that for years… something in the beer, I think.

[Seven]

For what it’s worth grienspace: I’m in Oregon and I’ve been following the elections. I don’t often watch TV News, but www.cbc.ca has had some good coverage for me --as well as the rather long thread in GD

There are some of us down here that are interested but we don’t bother with TV News anymore because we’re tired of hearing cherry picked news for ratings. I wouldn’t expect to bother watching local news for that coverage and I’d be shocked if I did see it on National news (outside of a blip-vert style report).

Several of us were talking about it at work the other day as well.

Don’t write the US people off yet. Many of us are aware of the rest of the planet. Our broadcasts don’t always relect our interests.

They reflect the interests of the people who make the broadcasts.