General Categories
Best Blog - Andrew Sullivan
Best New Blog - ~ synthesis ~
Best Individual Blogger - Driftglass
Best Humor Blog - The Comics Curmudgeon
Best Comic Strip - xkcd
Best Online Community - Strobist
Best Liberal Blog - Wonkette
Best Conservative Blog - small dead animals
Best Political Coverage - FiveThirtyEight
Best Celebrity Blogger - Wil Wheaton
Other categories of interest to SDA readers -
Best Science Blog - Watts Up with That
Best Canadian Blog - Ezra Levant
And last year's runner-up for Best Canadian Blog, Best Diarist - Raymi the Minx
The full list of results is here.
The list of people to thank is long, and will be by necessity, incomplete. First, to the loyal readers here who have put SDA at the top of our category for each of the five years we've been nominated!.(Four years as Best Canadian blog, before being retired by the awards committee and moved to the Best Conservative category.)
To our friends in talk radio, John Gormley and Charles Adler for the shout-outs they gave SDA over the past week (and over the past year, for that matter!). As my Dad says - blogging is talk radio for the internet!
Blogging Tories also played a big part, featuring the poll at the main site during the final couple of days.The endorsements from individual bloggers were a great help. They were all appreciated, and as you can see by the margin of victory, every one helped.
Truthfully, my initial goal was to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack. Then, when things began to swing into gear, it became apparent we had an outside shot of pulling it off. But talk about a nail-biter! After a see-saw battle with Ace, SDA didn't pull into the final lead until about 15 minutes before the polls finally closed.
Speaking of Ace - the morons are great competitors, and what a great blog site. I don't stop there nearly enough.
Someone called the other day, and asked "what's next?". The truth is that there is no "what's next". SDA is exactly what it was intended to be, and I have no greater aspirations or ambitions than to do exactly what I am now.
So, as you were.
Except for a few final words to our right leaning compatriots in the US. Some wondered why a blog from rural Saskatchewan had been included in the category... and how it was gaining on them.
Black is white, up is down and a Canadian wins "best conservative" at the Weblog awards.
Had conservatives in the US worked as hard at "getting out the vote" as the SDA Nation did this week, you might be getting ready to welcome Vice-President Sarah Palin today.
Congrats big time, Kate!
Speaking of Sarah Palin, I don't know why, but earlier today I was reflecting upon two acquaintances I'd lost because of her. Both of these acquaintances were women, one Canadian, one American. When I saw each of them continuously making vicious comments about Palin and her religion, I asked each of them a simple question: "You would never dare make such derogatory comments about Blacks or Asians or Jews. So why is it okay to do so with Christians?"
Neither of them could tolerate me "daring" to ask such a thing and haven't spoken with me since. The Minds of the Left - an endless riddle!
P.S. Not sure if you're yet written about this this from Mark Steyn. Nice words said about you therein!
Good on ya Kate, and all the rodents that voted.
K
Congrats Kate. SDA is, and will continue to be, my favourite blog. Not because of any silly award it's won, but because it always has the best topics, best leader, best discussions, best links and of course the best supporters. Not bad for a little blog out of Saskatchewan eh.
Keep up the good work.
Kate, I am so pleased for you...and for conservative Canada.
When I think about a Saskatchewan blog with a dead gopher on it consistently un-doing the starched progressive wisdom of the day, it takes me to a tiny phrase in a very old book: "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools"
It is all so very right, this blog of yours.
Congratulations.
Congratulations from one of a thousand "lurkers". Part of the strength of a blog lies in the silent majority who doesn't always debate in the comments. I show up, I read, and on the rare occasion I comment.
But, mostly I think about what I read. And I vote. Politicians should be so inspirational.
Congratulations on your well deserved win. And congratulations to the Ace of Spades HQ. That was a hell of a battle.
A couple of years ago I said to Kate; sda is the Drudge of Canada, only better. Kate modestly laughed and said she would never be on the scale of a Drudge.
Never say never.
Congratulations Kate!
well done Kate for once I don't mind being called a sda rodent! You rock girl!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!
Well deserved.
I thought that conservative thinking was well represented throughout the "best in nation" part of blog awards.
Totten in Middle East category, , Levant in Canada category (with FFF second), Reference Frame in Europe. And Melanie Phillips nearly won the best UK blog.
It's an encouraging sign. It tells me that principled conservatism is in the ascendancy in terms of thoughtful and thought-provoking bloggery.
And I had never gone to Ace of Spades before. It's a very good site.
I couldn't be prouder of the accomplishment here. Congrats.
I feel strangely Canadian at this moment. Very well done.
So does the Dodge get Kevlar reinforced tires now?
For the first time in my life I'm finally proud to be Canadian.
Congrats, Kate. Morons and Rodents. Arise and go forth!
I ain't got no quarrel with no Ace - but I voted for you anyway.
I say! Jolly good show, Kate!
Congratulations: I remember reading on the blog site of one of your competitors south of the 49th, he said "internet polls really don't mean much" and his site was way behind too. Obviously his readers felt the same as they didn't vote.
mike
Congrats Kate from an old Boilermaker we have found a forum and our voices will go forward to borrow from "tiny tim" "god bless us every one"
Cheers Bubba & Bubbette
Excellent! Kate the power of your blog is that you present ideas that spark debate, and you are unfailingly Conservative, this leads to loyalty in your readers (fellow rodents). A well deserved win.
Great job, Kate, well earned! Always time well spent at SDA.
Congratulations Kate on your win!
robert w at 9:18,
by any chance do these women think they are being clever and demonstrating their superior intellect by joining with the rest of the mob in a smear job against a woman who doesn't play the victim card? I wonder if it ever occurred to any of these Palin hating females that if they dared to stray from the herd once in a while they could bust through that so called "glass ceiling"
oops forgot to add congrats to Kate. SDA rules!
Bravo and congratulations Kate for some well deserved respect and hard earned recognition. For all the newcomers here at SDA would you mind telling the story of the (pictured) small dead animal and grandpa's old gun?
Tt Lee H this evening. He didn't know you had won. He was really pleased and wanted to thank you for the traffic on the urban reserve piece. We all think a lot of you and your site for not being politically correct about issues that matter. You wlll say in the open what most people say only in the safety of their homes.
Scott
Kate - 9:09 pm - "The truth is that there is no "what's next."
Kate, as an unabashed supporter, I cannot accept the notion there is no "what's next" for you.
There is too much need and desire for a conservative voice in Canada and all the better that it is a young independent woman's conservative voice.
Your success for the past four years as the best Canadian Blog and now best Conservative Blog North America is testament to that.
You may not seek a "what's next" and the internet is fine, for now, but you have much more to offer and you must have a larger audience, and we conservatives demand it.
Once again, congratulations Kate, you are the BEST!
Well done, Kate. Keep going.
MM
i'm going to miss the hobo hunts....the throat searing truth of valu-rite vodka....the thrill running up my leg being called a moron daily(which i are)...
but the truth was small dead animals was a titch more rewarding than AofS hq......and the reason was of course in a small yet aggregate way my "adding my mite to the pavilion..."
and of course you're more than welcome...service compris !
Congratulations from a fellow "stubblejumper".
May I add SDA is to the weblog community as Rush Limbaugh is to talk radio; the internet version of the Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies!
Mega dittos!
Congrats Kate! I love this site!!
Oh and to Canadian Sentinel, once it was clear that Ezra was running away with it I voted for you every time so you could beat the leftists! Wait to go!
Congratulations Kate
"It's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won
the election."
Margaret Thatcher
WELL DONE! Congratulations from one of your Yank fans.
From a fellow Saskatchewan Girl (now living in BC): Kate, I'm so proud of you! We need you to keep doing what you're doing! Congratulations!
And that Gopher youtube video rocks! THAT put you over the top!
Well done. Any one of eight of the finalists would have been fine with me, but since I'm a big Mark Steyn fan and he links to you regularly, and I liked what I saw here, I pulled the handle for you a few times.
Another Yank admirer
PS. Please send heat; it's cold in Iowa!
Congratulations, Kate from a frequent reader, rare commenter, and sometime disagreer.
Way to go, Kate!
This is the future of journalism. As your site query showed, you have a diverse "audience". Many of us can't spend as long online looking for news or items of interest as we might wish. When that happens, we look for folks who have a good eye to sort through the drek and find things of interest for us. Yours and Anthony's are the only two blog sites I'll regularly check to see watt's happening in fields that I'm interested in (typo?). I hope that the increased notice and inevitable surge in viewers leads to more profitable ads (for you) and more time available to hunt for those elusive interesting stories online.
steve, you're lookin' in the wrong place for that.
Steve, check over at http://wattsupwiththat.com
They'll help you find all the missing heat that Al Gore promised.
Unless it's just hot air after all.
Raymi the Minx... Have to admit that I stop in every once in a while... It's like watching a train wreck... A really, really well documented train wreck...
Congratulations, that is no mean feat to beat out established US blogs, considering the disparity in populations. Congratulations also to Ezra and Kathy Shaidle.
It gives me hope that candidates will learn that if they give the electorate a good reason to vote for them, the people will mobilize and vote against overwhelming odds.
I wonder if the federal conservatives will learn and start governing like conservatives? Then I will vote for them again, at this point that is kinda doubtful. As for the liberals in BC, you won't get my vote again until the carbon tax is removed. There is also a big message there for the republicans.
Conservative voters will work their butts off for you guys, but you have to motivate us with conservative policy and action.
Well deserved! Thanks for all the time you put into this very educational blog.
Congrats Kate.
I never visited blogs up until about 6 months ago, and yours is the first and only one I now frequent. I enjoy your topics, your comments, and above all your wit.
Keep up the great work!
Congratulations Kate, don't stop !
You'd clean up in any election.
Thank-you and congratulations Kate.
Like Colin, you were my first, and are the only blog I visit. I guess once you've had road kill you can't go back to filet mignon.
In addition to the plethora of well deserved compliments, I would like to add that on a daily basis you gather the most impressive group of people anywhere. That is truly priceless.
I forgot.
"Black is white, up is down..."
Grand Slam!
Congratulations Kate!
We showed them Yanks who's boss!!! :D
Congratulations Kate!
Ace's site is great but smalldeadanimals put a beat down on the Hobo Hunters.
Congratulations Kate - this is a proud day for you and and for your gallant rodent army (that would be all of us). Congratulations to Ezra too! BTW, you have a fine Blog, Ace and you really gave SDA a run for the money. This would have had no meaning if there had not been such formidable competition. Four years from now, I think that you, Americans, will understand why Canadian Conservatives are so motivated.