Election Notebook

Pity, polls, Web sites and select
foreign media coverage

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

• Week Two of this seriously charisma-deprived campaign, and Stéphane Dion’s chances are taking a beating across the board, especially in Quebec. With his owlish demeanour and complicated green plan, the poor guy just can’t seem to electrify Joe caisse de six. So here’s one reason to consider voting Liberal: pity. Odds are he’s going to get smoked coast to coast in October, even though he’s likely the smartest party leader running. So if you are a member of, or identify with, the Poindexter community and/or hate bullies, go for the guy Stephen Harper shoves into the locker.

• Here at EN HQ, we generally dislike polls. As long ago as the Iowa caucus in that other, more interesting election, pollsters were being confounded by published figures saying one thing and voters going and doing another. Things don’t get better, or clearer, north of the border. On Tuesday afternoon, EN’s deadline day, Google News had these two headlines at the top of their Canadian election coverage page: “Harper’s lead shrinking,” as reported by the Canadian Press, and then, right below it, “Conservative lead widens in election poll,” says Reuters. Harris/Decima says Tory support’s down, Ekos says it’s up. Either way, it’s bleak times for the Grits, but how bleak?

• Much has been made lately about the feebleness of Canadian electoral Web sites, especially compared to the whiz-bangery of candidates’ in the aforementioned other, more interesting election. Take my.barackobama.com. It’s slick, it breathes, it’s artfully laid out and offers all kinds of gimmicks to get more and more plugged in. Over at www.johnmccain.com, things are not as high-tech, but the site is still easily navigable. Stephen Harper, on the other hand, doesn’t even have a personal Web site—although www.conservative.ca is devoted to him, and, as a Web site, is as appealing as he is. At www.thisisdion.ca, the Flash site is handsome but appallingly slow on certain ancient Macs (ahem) on production day. Meanwhile, www.ndp.ca/jacklayton and jacklayton.ndp.ca are pretty much interchangeable, both being equally dull. Finding Gilles Duceppe online isn’t that easy, even though he says he’s www.presentpourlequebec.org. The site looks similar to Harper’s and Layton’s: primary colours dominate, the candidate’s head shot and slogan at the top above a menu bar and links to join, policy and press releases. Yawn. Finally, www.elizabethmay.ca is the simplest of the bunch—and it’s pretty stale too.

• Online journal Slate.com sat up from gazing at its inside-the-beltway navel and took notice of us last Friday, with an article by Christopher Flavelle headlined, “What’s the Matter With Canada? How the World’s Nicest Country Turned Mean.” After getting past tired jokes about Anne Murray and snowmobiles, Flavelle, a former speechwriter for Stéphane Dion, lists the Harper government’s recent string of dubious accomplishments: kyboshing greenhouse gas emission targets; re-opening the abortion debate; slashing and burning arts funding and foreign aid; washing its hands of Omar Khadr, the only Western citizen still held at Guantanamo Bay; running a deficit after years of huge budget surplusses; and ending its clemency lobbying for citizens on foreign death rows. Flavelle is obviously a partisan hack, but his prediction that, with a third consecutive minority government a distinct possibility, “the polarization of Canadian politics will continue, and with it the brutal, zero-sum politicking that has left the country in convulsions,” has a prescient ring. Read it at www.slate.com/id/2199929/.

• Meanwhile, The Economist also ran an article about the Canadian election in its Sept. 6 issue. Essentially calling Harper’s reason for dropping the writ bogus, it begins with a quote from Machiavelli—“A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise”—and ends with a line noting that the Italian courtier would have approved of the PM’s decision.