Politics — Page 2

Thanks to two people

November 13, 2000 by Michael Boyle

, Peter Merholz and Meg Hourihan, for pointing out this map of the US election results by county. The additional level of granularity yields some really interesting information – particularly concerning the urban/rural split in US politics.

The same thing exists in Canadian politics as well, with the ruling Liberals electing MPs in most major cities while the upstart Reform/Alliance has otherwise swept the West and is threatening a breakthrough in outlying parts of Ontario. Likewise, in Quebec the Bloc is predominant except in Montreal, and didn’t sweep Quebec City either. An important difference between Canada and the US is that Canada is slightly more urban than the US – though it’s only marginally so.

My attention turned

November 9, 2000 by Michael Boyle

to our own Federal general election tonight, as I watched the English language debate between the leaders of the 5 major parties. I was quite disappointed in the whole thing, although frankly I didn’t expect much.

Dan Rather, following all the US debates, was loathe to call them debates at all, suggesting that rather than debate it was really an opportunity for the two leaders to talk about their platform only – the other guy just happened to be in the room. Our debate here was the opposite – it was all acrimonious bickering and no annunciation of coherent platforms. None at all.

Alexa McDonough, leader of the ever-smaller federal NDP, came off the best by far, in my opinion. My own MP, Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois, was actually pretty good – except the idea that overwhelms everything else he stands for is diametrically opposed to my view of things. Joe Clark, the once and current leader of the Progressive Conservative party was OK, but it’s clear that although he’s a decent guy, his time has passed.

Which leaves Jean Chretien and Stockwell Day. Chretien, the leader of the Liberal party (and current PM, if you’re not from around here) was basically in an impossible situation. He didn’t meet it very well. Day came off like a motivational speaker – a lying, duplicitous motivational speaker. He and his Canadian Alliance cronies are probably the scariest thing to happen to Canadian politics in years. Which is enough said about him.

I haven’t seen it on

September 28, 2000 by Michael Boyle

any Canadian news sites yet, but just after 3pm today Pierre Elliott Trudeau passed away at his home of prostate cancer. Whether you loved him or hated him and his politics, the politicians around these days seem like pipsqueeks in comparison.

This is an interesting

September 17, 2000 by Michael Boyle

surpise: Peru’s Fujimori Calls New Elections, Will Not Stand As Candidate. I’ve always half-followed Peruvian politics. Which is weird except if you know that I grew up around the block from the Peruvian Embassy house in Ottawa, so at a very young age I developed a mild fascination for Peru and it’s politics.

There’s an interesting

August 8, 2000 by Michael Boyle

crossover from Gore’s selection of Lieberman to Canadian politics. Stockwell Day, the new leader of the largest right wing party here, is an Evangelical Christian. And he complains, loudly and often, that reporters ask him about that unfairly (invoking god in the context of politics is viewed with great suspicion here in Canada). Anyhow, the Globe published an interesting editorial about this today: God and politicians.