Election day (for about 8% of you) is here! Get out and vote!

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Colin reminds me that our neighbours to the north are holding national elections today.  It says something about how self-obsessed the U.S. media is that any of us needs reminding.

Your major options
include the Liberals, the New Democrats, the Conservatives, the Greens,
et pour ceux de vous qui veulent cesser ce non-sens entier du Canada, le Bloc Quebecois.

Your less-likely options
include the Libertarians, the Western Block party, the Communists, the
Canadian Action Party, the Christian Heritage Party, the Marijuana
Party, the Progressive Canadians, the Marxist-Leninists, the First
Peoples National Party, and the Animal Alliance Environment Voters
Party of Canada.

If you’re not quite sure why the Animal
Alliance Environment people might think the Greens don’t quite get the
point, the CBC has prepared a handy Cheat Sheet.  Fun highlights:

  • The Bloc Quebecois wants to field their own sporting teams at international events.
  • The Conservative leader has been making a fresh big announcement every morning.  So much for Rovian staying on message.
  • The Greens have everybody a little confused.  So they’re definitely Greens.
  • The Liberal slogan is "Choose Your Canada."  I’ll take that big one in the middle, please.
  • The
    New Democrats will probably only get about 20 percent of the vote. 
    Which means they’ll actually be the ones holding the balance of power
    in the House of Commons.

If you’re not quite sure how this last bit is possible, check out this cool examination of different voting systems, including the Nobel prize-winning realization that even without Diebold, no voting system can ever actually work completely, which leads to this nifty example
of how equally-valid voting systems might play out the same election
among four candidates with four logical yet different
results.

Fun, watching a relatively healthy democracy, so different and yet familiar.  Me, I’m hoping the Marijuana Party and the Christian Heritage people wind up in 50-50 control, if only for the entertainment value.

Sometimes I think Vancouver wouldn’t be a bad place to wind up…