For those without the cable needed to watch Obama’s 30-minute pre-election show, here’s a youtube of it.

1h

CAPRU had a day skip, but is back yet again with your fun supply of Canadian punditry.

Rick Bell:

When you see Tories doling out more than a half-million bucks for a fancy quad ski lift at an Edmonton bunny hill and the cash is a must, because rich kids from the capital city’s southwest shouldn’t have to wait in line to tumble down what passes for a slope, you know what appears as grey matter under the legislature dome is unplugged from the best of planet Earth’s brainwaves.

Yes, the $600,000 is cash from VLT gamblers but it’s still coin the province gets and can spend as it sees fit.

And it is a small amount but it is a sign of something bigger. The provincial poobahs will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the rude reality of the current financial calamity.

You see, most of today’s elected Tories are Conservatives of convenience. They’re Tories because that’s how you get elected. It’s just a brand.

Rebecca Walberg: Harper was too much economics and not enough culture war. In these times of economic turmoil and strife, we clearly need more culture war and social division. Harper lost not due to his complete lack of a plan for the clear economic troubles Ontario and Quebec are having or his lack of charisma. No, the only thing that kept Harper and crew from getting that majority was not taking a clear stance on the issues that matter during a recession; abortion and gay marriage.

The Toronto Star:

Dion has accurately diagnosed a major cause of the malaise: a moribund fundraising apparatus dramatically outpaced by the Conservative and NDP machines. Lacking a deep campaign war chest, the Liberals were unable to fend off a negative advertising onslaught that framed him as a geeky, goofy, professorial politician.

“I want to protect the next leader against that,” Dion vowed.

By announcing his departure, Dion signalled the end of a noble experiment in Canadian politics where a principled politician could concentrate on ideas and policies, rather than imagery and advertising. But his formidable intellectual credentials, his political courage during the national unity debates, and his impressive commitment to saving the environment and fighting poverty failed to impress voters.

Paula Arab:

I’ll say it even though it’s unpopular: homeless people have rights, too. We forget that, because those already down on their knees aren’t likely to get up and defend themselves, or remind us they’re part of the human race.

And anyone who says it for them risks a public stoning, being dismissed as a bleeding-heart communist, or told to take in the homeless themselves.

Look at the backlash after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross upheld the rights of homeless to protect themselves from the elements, when forced to sleep outdoors.

…

Sleeping in a public park is a last resort, when all other options fail. And everyone facing that kind of dire situation has every right to try and cover themselves from the wind, rain and cold.

If they don’t, they risk freezing or catching a life-threatening illness like pneumonia.

Bob Hepburn is taking bets on who the next Liberal leader will be. His top bet? Former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna.

Naheed Nenshi:

Almost lost in the discussion has been one very smart strategy: Obama focused hard on the almost-forgotten state of Iowa, a state that had voted Democratic in three elections, but which John Kerry lost.

Not only did Obama win a surprisingly large victory in the Iowa caucuses, he moved the state into the Democrat camp. With Iowa in his pocket, he can afford to lose the traditional battlegrounds of Ohio and Florida, as long as he picks up votes in places like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

So, what’s the Liberals’ Iowa?

If we assume that they can defend their pockets of strength in Toronto, Montreal, and Atlantic Canada, where else do they concentrate their efforts, long before the next election, to build their starting position? Manitoba? Urban mothers? Established suburbs in mid-sized cities?

What is clear is that they need to rebuild a coalition. It’s impossible to win an election when you start by writing off one-third of all the seats.

1h

Look real closely at the scarf she’s wearing. Either one of her support staff is a Democratic operative, or she really doesn’t pay that much attention to things.

Apparently, she is a Democrat now. (H/t Stumper @ Newsweek)

1h

Now that Dion has officially stepped down, it’s time for the next CAPRU.

Don Macpherson: For those unaware of history, Trudeau lost the 1979 election, stepped down as official leader, but stayed as interim leader. Within a year there was an election and Trudeau won for the Liberals. Contrary to what Dion may think or the Conservatives may think, Dion is not Trudeau.

Neil Waugh: Now that Dion has officially stepped down, I’m just going to add insult to injury and repeat every provably false or misleading Conservative talking point about Dion and the Green Shift one last time. I’ll miss you Dion, you made my job as a Conservative mouthpiece so easy.

Jeffrey Simpson: Second verse, same as the first.

Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff will surely contend again for the prize, if that is what you want to call the Liberal leadership these days. They did well last time. Mr. Ignatieff could probably have won the leadership if Mr. Rae had thrown him his support. But then lots of things could have happened last time. Either Mr. Rae or Mr. Ignatieff could have won except for crippling weaknesses and errors.

Mr. Ignatieff had not spent enough time in Canada. His support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq was toxic. Now, however, Mr. Ignatieff has recanted his Iraq views, paid his dues in the party, and can fairly say he was ahead of his time accepting Quebeckers as a “nation.” Mr. Rae never really gave the party a set of ideas that defined his candidacy. He gave them rather the gift of himself, a gift with considerable talents and extensive liabilities, including his unhappy tenure as NDP premier of Ontario. Those years are fading in memory. He, too, has paid his dues, running and being elected as a Liberal, something he had not done when running for the leadership the first time.

Les Leyne: Regardless of how effective they are, carbon taxes are not popular. Dion’s green shift seem to have derailed his campaign unilaterally, even though it was a revenue neutral plan. Campbell’s (BC’s premier) carbon tax will likely hurt him come the elections in May. Why? “The tax annoys people and the revenue neutrality confounds them.”

Adam Radwanski:

A confluence of factors has helped turn our election races into schoolyard tussles. The anything-goes nature of online debate — on blogs and even on parties’ official websites — has spilled over into mainstream discourse much the way talk radio infected it south of the border. The media’s obsession with “war rooms” has left their occupants trying to outdo one another with gratuitous attacks. And the clutter of five parties competing in a 24-hour news cycle has left them making increasingly shrill noises in the hope of being heard.

Some parties are worse offenders than others. But Canadians are casting a plague on all their houses. Voter turnout was at a record low in this election, falling to 59 per cent. And anecdotal evidence suggests that most people simply tuned out all the noise until the campaign’s final week.

Nigel Hannaford:

… those with deeper understanding appreciate that Canada is badly flawed by its imperialist, racist, God-fearing past, blah, blah, blah.

…

The unfortunate thing is today’s judging of the actions of people who lived a hundred years ago by the standards of people alive today.

To be fair, would one not judge people by the standards of their day? For instance, let’s say it turns out driving SUVs causes global warming, after all. How accurate, never mind fair, would it be if in 100 years time, a future generation wrote of SUV-drivers as though they were wilful criminals?

… do we condemn a policy of preparing aboriginal people for the world we had imposed on them which, by the standards of 120 years ago, stood out as progressive. Remember, by 1890, the residential schools were up and running. But, in the U.S., that was also the year of the Battle of Wounded Knee: Thus Canadian natives got teachers, the Sioux got the 7th Cavalry.

And so on. Bottom line: We need to be a little more forgiving of our forefathers, and give them credit for doing the best they could without our superior knowledge and morality.

Lawrence Martin believes that the Canadian Obama is not coming and progressives should stop waiting for him. Simply put, Canada is rapidly heading towards a Conservative future while the states become more progressive. However, I believe, unlike the 30s when this lat happened, there will be no great depression to jolt us back. [Ed Note: and most Canadians hope you are wrong Lawrence. Well, at least 62% of them do.]

Erik Rolfsen:

… on March 18, the day he made [the] now-famous “A More Perfect Union” speech in Philadelphia.

When I watched that speech, like so many Canadians I came away wishing we had a chance to vote for a guy like that. A leader who can really inspire comes around only once every 50 years or so in politics.

We haven’t had one since Pierre Trudeau and Americans hadn’t had once since before I was born. I couldn’t believe they were considering NOT making this man president.

Andrew Coyne has an interesting wrap-up on the recent election. He believes that nobody won this election, least of all the Conservatives under their leader Stephen Harper.

This is an indictment, not just of the particular tactics of this campaign, but of the whole strategic vision of the party’s “pragmatists.” They have led the polls since they were elected, yet they have been chasing all the way — chasing the middle, chasing Quebec — only to see their quarries recede ever further from their grasp. All that tacking about, all their attempts to denude themselves of anything resembling an ideology, has not produced a more conservative public: it has never been more liberal. The effect of Tory efforts to woo Quebec nationalists has not been to bring Quebec into the Conservative fold, still less to make them more Canadian: it has only persuaded them to withdraw still further from national life, to consider Canada as little more than a ready source of cash and favours. Think of all that the Conservatives have thrown at Quebec. Billions of dollars in the name of the fictional “fiscal imbalance.” The status of nation. A growing role in foreign affairs. And it all falls to pieces over a few paltry cuts in arts funding?

1h

The infamous CAPRU returns with another late-night edition.

Greg Weston: The Liberals are screwed. Not only was the last election the worst electoral performance in their history, but they are heading very rapidly towards bankruptcy because their few remaining supporters are not likely to open their wallets to the Liberals until they sort themselves out.

Jack Knox: There is a serious problem with homeless people camping out in the parks of Victoria. It’s the fact that there are so many people are being forced to camp out in the parks of Victoria in the first place. City Hall needs to solve the problem, not the symptoms.

Tom Brodbeck: Safe Injection Sites don’t work, don’t listen to all of the “science” and “facts. These random scientists don’t believe they work and neither do the politicians who are ideologically opposed to it, so clearly they are useless. Also, global warming is a myth, evolution is false and the Earth is actually flat. Since I don’t believe in those and neither does this random scientist, they are clearly false. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is part of the conspiracy.

Lorne Gunter manages to incorporate most myths that global warming skeptics trot out to desperately protect their position into his entirely disjointed and confusing editorial. For explanations as to why these are conspiracty theories, see Grist’s How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic.

Toronto Star: Ontarians want to be environmental. However, they also want to keep their acreages and cottages, and don’t want any of those big wind power generators popping up anywhere.

Rachel Sa:

I felt dirty after voting last Tuesday.

I’ve voted in every election since I was eligible, casting my ballot in each of Canada’s last four general elections. Now, after 10 years of suffrage, I’m wondering: Will I ever get to mark my ballot for the person or party I really want?

Thanks to our antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system, I’m sure I wasn’t the only Canadian who held her nose and voted for a candidate I don’t support just to ensure the candidate I really don’t support didn’t get a seat.

Steven A. Sovran:

In Mr. Skinner’s column, he admonishes readers about the “hidden costs” of a single-payer health care system as per the Canadian model. He writes that in comparison with the U.S., Canadian health care is in fact cheaper, but only as a result of having fewer advanced technologies, fewer surgeries and fewer medical resources.

Startling statistics presented in the article assert that for the 55 per cent more per capita spent on health care, Americans are certainly getting their money’s worth — 327 per cent more MRI units, 183 per cent more CT scanners and 100 per cent more surgeries. These statistics are striking and undeniable.

Interestingly, however, not a single mention is made about patient’s health outcomes.

Does all this investment in technology, equipment, and physical space change the health of people?

Ian Shanley: Dion didn’t lose this election; Canadian democracy lost it, with a paltry 59.1% of registered voters even bothering to show up at the polls.

Michael Geist: Canadian political parties needs to join the rest of us in the 21st century if they want anyone to vote for them.

This low-risk, low reward approach does little to inspire the public, instead seeking to solidify existing support.

It also leaves millions of Canadians on the sidelines as they see little reason to become political engaged or active. Indeed, by the measure of voter turnout, virtually all the parties were losers with more than a million lost votes combined for the Conservatives, Liberals, and New Democrats (each party received fewer votes in 2008 than they did in 2006).

In fact, it may only serve to propagate the perception of superior care in the public eye.

Ian Robinson: Canadians overwhelmingly voted against the environment in the election. Just ignore the  62% of voters who supported environmental parties!  We clearly should ignore all of this enviromentalism stuff since more Conservatives won seats.

Trevor Harrison:

I interviewed Stephen Harper many years ago. He was thirty-one years old and already the Reform Party’s policy advisor. I don’t remember a lot about the interview. What I do remember, however, is his telling me that, politically, a party did not want (note: “want,” not “need”) the support of a lot of voters, not even a plurality — this would mean too many debts to pay later on — but merely enough to gain power.

This argument — he had a fancy name for it, which I have long forgotten — was already being practiced elsewhere. In Britain, Maggie Thatcher’s Conservatives had narrow-casted its support to concentrate on voters in the English south. In the United States, the Reagan Republicans were already sorting out their cadre of hard-core voters from everyone else, a practice (often today referred to as “retail politics”) that later (under Karl Rove) became even more elaborate. Ontario’s Harris Conservatives — many of whom, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, are part of Harper’s cabinet — adopted the same tactics of divide and rule in the 1990s.

1h

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable.

1h

Excellent news from last night, the NDP candidate for Edmonton-Strathcona (The one I have been trying to encourage people to look into more) has won her seat!

So in the vast seat of blue which is Alberta, there is a bastion of light from Edmonton. Redmonton is no longer, the Liberals are not the last chance for the left in Alberta anymore.

Long live Edmontondp.

1h

I don’t have much time this morning to blog about the elections due to a contract I’m currently on, but I have to ask this question to everyone who reads this blog. I will have more commentary on the other parties later in the day, but I feel the number one thing that went through my head last night was the following.

Harper has had three of the best opportunities in history to win a majority government — He was the primary opposition when the Liberals got caught in Adscam, he was the first leader to actually unite the right in Canada, and in the last election, he was running against a very unpopular Liberal leader (outside the Liberals that is) with a plan that was easily spun to come across as a massive tax increase.

In other words, Harper should have won a majority almost three times over, and yet he didn’t. Why?

I think the question the media (and Conservative Party faithfuls) need to ask now that this election is over is “Why can’t Harper ever close the deal with Canadians?”

And if I was a Conservative, I’d be mad as hell this time. Harper lost Quebec due to bad strategy, his short temper, and a complete lack of charisma. Harper is the reason the Conservatives are not get a majority, and I think it’s important now for Conservative supporters who want a majority to question whether or not Harper is the best person to head up your party.

Harper took the best political climate possible for Conservatives, a party balance sheet which had far more funds than any other party, a good ground game in multiple provinces, and was able to squeak out a few more seats (mostly due to vote splitting than anything else, see Kitchener-Waterloo for a good example.)

Conservatives, Harper lost your majority and may have lost it for a while to come. Something important to think about while you celebrate your win.

1h

Like a 2-4 of stubbies, here’s your daily fix (of Canadian punditry).

Crossposted at DailyKos

Josee Legault:

Whether the next government is a Conservative or a Liberal minority, chances are that historians will register this campaign as the most ideologically-driven in this country’s modern history.

Beyond the strategies, tactics, pooping puffins, powder-blue sweaters or invisible Conservative candidates, this campaign has been marked by a confrontation between the Tories’ neoconservative vision and the more centrist or left-of-centre policies of the Liberals, the NDP, the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party.

…

On the other hand, this ideological narrative confirmed how divided the non-conservative parties were at the onset and how united the neocons remain. But now, with a possible second Tory minority, or perhaps even a Liberal one, one of two things could happen.

Harper and his mentor, Tom Flanagan, could get their wish of seeing the non-conservative votes remain hopelessly fragmented among four parties. Or, with the sovereignty issue out of the way at this time, and without getting into a formal coalition, Dion, Duceppe, Jack Layton and Elizabeth May could cut some productive issue-by-issue deals in the next Parliament.

Hicks on Six:

With the financial world in turmoil, be aware of up coming forced mergers.

Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush and W. R. Grace Co. will merge to become Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace.

3M will merge with Goodyear and become MMMGood.

Zippo, Audi, Dofasco, and Dacro will be known as ZipAudiDoDa.

FedEx and competitor UPS will unite as FedUP.

Grey Poupon and Docker Pants are expected to become PouponPants.

Victoria’s Secret and Smith & Wesson will merge. The new name? TittyTittyBangBang.

John Ivison: Oh noes! Everyone in the country has fallen under Dion-mania. So, I must parrot out the same old Conservative talking points everyone has heard time and again about how since Dion is a Liberal he must be planning to increase taxes. That should scare everyone back in line.

The Toronto Star:

And many Conservative candidates have been missing in action. The Star assigned reporters to do profiles on all 47 ridings in the Greater Toronto Area. These reporters say that many Conservative candidates were hard to reach, dodging interviews and failing to return calls. There have also been reports of Conservative candidates boycotting all-candidates meetings. And all but one Conservative candidate in Ontario refused to reply to Premier Dalton McGuinty’s letter seeking their views on fair treatment of this province.

This overly controlled style of campaigning, with virtually all the messages emanating from one man, Harper, is a perversion of parliamentary democracy. Yes, Harper is the party leader and ought to be the main messenger. But other Conservative candidates – the successful ones, anyway – will also sit in Parliament and take part in debates and committee hearings. Restricting access to them during the campaign reflects poorly on Harper and his team.

Michael Den Tandt:

The irony? Harper is right. Canada is in relatively good shape. What he doesn’t mention: Whatever cushion we might have had in the Paul Martin era is gone. Jim Flaherty gave that away when he cut the GST by two percentage points, at a cost of $60 billion to the treasury over five years. Have you noticed your GST savings? Likely not.

Will you notice the consequences of the deficits that begin to pile up next year if the global economy slips into a deep recession, as it likely will? Yes.

Jeffrey Simpson: I don’t think Dion has really turned this election around. This was just the Liberal brand standing on its own, compounded with Harper making some unfathomable mistakes. [Ed Note: I'd have to say this is the most level-headed discussion of the last few days of excitement.]

Lorne Gunter: I cannot believe that Stephane Dion and Jack Layton are using the public’s fear of losing their life savings to try and garner votes by promising to help them out during a recession. The economy isn’t that bad in Canada, ignoring the 2000 point drop in the TSX over the last week. The fundamentals of our economy are strong, right?

Tom Brodbeck: I came up with a cute story including a demographic for whom the carbon tax will have no noticeable effect. Therefore, I conclude the carbon tax won’t reduce reductions whatsoever. A small family paying heating bills won’t reduce their reductions to save money, thus corporations won’t bother either to try and save money. Isn’t that how this works?

Sinclair Stevens: It’s up to Canadian voters to block a Harper majority.

Harper entered politics with a mission. He wanted to transform Canada into a loose confederation of autonomous provinces with the federal government limited to foreign affairs, defence and an arbitration role among the provinces.

He felt it could be done without a constitutional change. “Just a willing federal government,” he said. He even suggested there should be a firewall around Alberta, his province of choice.

To execute his plans, he needed a majority in Parliament.

Steven Patten, associate professor of political science at the University of Alberta, states in a new book, The Harper Record: “He hasn’t wandered far from the ideological beliefs that first motivated him to engage in politics. He surrounds himself with conservatives who share his strong ideological beliefs and when he compromises on policy or the membership of his team, it is typically a strategic move designed to bring him closer to winning a majority government.”

Greg Weston would like everyone to try to ignore their fears of a Harper majority (a real possibility), and instead concentrate on their fears of a Dion minority (an incredibly improbable outcome.)

Bruce Hallsor:

At some point, if our democracy is to truly reflect the will of Canadians, we will have to decide whether our party system should change, or our voting system should change. In the meantime, political leaders of all stripes are asking voters to patch over this problem through something called strategic voting. Strategic voting asks people to pretend there are only two parties, even when there are four or more on the ballot.

…

If you go to the polls next Tuesday contemplating a vote for somebody you do not like, just to stop someone who you believe is worse, please take a moment to think how much better our democracy could be.

Make this the last election where your choice will be ruled by negatives, instead of by a positive choice.

1h

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

• These guys might just agree with this guy.  Do you?  I’m kind of hoping he’s nuts.
• Hard times may even be affecting Apple (gasp!)
• Apparently, full male frontal nudity is now okay on primetime TV Thursday in the States! (not really safe for work)
• Google Chrome sure didn’t impress this guy. It’ll never impress these nerds.
• You know what I love even more than zefrank?  A TELEVISION PILOT with zefrank IN IT.
• Though in the Age of the Internet, is there still a place for television?
• I leave you with both of these for when you find yourself lost and stranded.  Bonus points if you can find these amidst your plight.