Open for comments.
Also, some links sent along, for your enjoyment;
The Larry, Curly and Moe Accord: see the “No Surprises” clause on page 2. The “within the limits of common sense” passage seems especially ironic.
More on that “A permanent consultation mechanism.” they offered the BQ.
Historical Summary of Canadian Elections
Drop others in the comments if you so wish.
Update – This is a good one.
Much fun in the LIberal.ca forums (h/t Shaken)

Why not just skip the endless minutes of speculation journalism from the national media and pop in a movie.

Followed by the networks continued waiting… waiting… waiting… for Dion’s taped response…. air time filled with CTV’s Lloyd Robertson, Craig Oliver and “analyst” Peter Donolo spinning on behalf of the missing Liberal leader.
It doesn’t get any better than this.
Update… and still waiting… though there are unconfirmed reports leaking out that a man of the general size and description of Michael Ignatieff was seen running down a street in Ottawa with something clutched in his hand….
7:29 Central… Lloyd Robertson: “Apparently the tape has not shown up yet, may not show up yet…. Goodbye for now”
Update … more unconfirmed reports that Dion is still working at the tape do-overs…
And he’s here! Incoherent (out of focus… wtf?) and …. live?
Webcam?
And it’s over. Marcia McMillan looks stunned…
From the comments – “Check out the book over Dion’s right shoulder. The title is “Hot Air”. No kidding !!”
This will be Youtube gold.
Note – I’m watching on CTV Newsnet, but apparently, the main network didn’t get it on air at all and finally cut back to regular programming. Yowza.
Jack must love that he had to take a back seat and wait as Gille “not mentioned in the coalition” Duceppe was able to respond first.
That whole “Three Stooges” thing is looking less like a metaphor all the time!
Update: The Leader of the Not-Quite-Ready-For-CTV-Primetime-Coalition addresses the nation from his bunker.

Continues to run counter to the mainstream “wisdom” of political and media elites alike;

Fresh off his runoff victory Tuesday night, Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss credited Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with firing up his base.
“I can’t overstate the impact she had down here,” Chambliss said during an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News. “When she walks in a room, folks just explode,” he added. “And they really did pack the house everywhere we went. She’s a dynamic lady, a great administrator, and I think she’s got a great future in the Republican Party.”
Chambliss said that after watching her campaign on his behalf at several events Monday, he does not see her star status diminishing within the party.
The Republican also thanked John McCain and the other big name Republicans that came to Georgia, but said Palin made the biggest impact.
“We had John McCain and Mike Huckabee and Gov. Romney and Rudy Giuliani, but Sarah Palin came in on the last day, did a fly-around and, man, she was dynamite,” he said. “We packed the houses everywhere we went. And it really did allow us to peak and get our base fired up.”

viia email;

One might want to ask where Gary Doer is right now…. He apparently advised the Federal NDP on campaign advice prior to the most recent federal election…. And… He apparently has worked well with the PMSH….
And…
As the longest serving premier in Canada you would think that he has some capital to spend on bringing everyone together….
Oh one more thing… He uses federal equalization payments like they are candy.

That rarest of all creatures, a Liberal who gets it;

Think that Westerners hate the Liberals already; think about the fallout after this. This will play extremely BAD in the West. EXTREMELY BAD. I’m talking NEP BAD. Steven Harper and the Conservatives are the embodiment of the West overcoming decades of alienation and frustration. This coalition will rob them of this. They’ll be pissed (PISSSED). Everyone has basically acknowledged that for the party to be relevant in the future and truly be a national party, we need to be competitive in the West (wealth, people, power heading here). This puts us back another 20 years. For the sake of Liberals in the West DONT DO IT.

The numbers

At this very moment a quite literal coup d’etat is under way in Ottawa, make no mistake about this. A government elected just seven weeks ago by the people is about to be overthrown, a government with by far the broadest representation from across the nation of any political party. It breaks down as follows:
British Columbia: CPC 22 – Lib 5 – NDP 9
Prairies: CPC 49 – Lib 2 – NDP 5
Ontario: CPC 51 – Lib 38 – NDP 17
Quebec: CPC 10 – Lib 13 – NDP 1 – Ind 1
Maritimes: CPC 10 – Lib 17 – NDP 3 – Ind 1
Territories: CPC 1 – Lib 1 – NDP 1
[…]
Circa 1988 I attended a hastily called rally in Lloydminster, AB, for western separatism. Roughly 600 showed up. Hundreds of them bought memberships. People were angry, fed up, and ready to go it alone.
A couple of months later I attended another rally in the same hall, this time to hear Preston Manning. Many of the same people showed up, hundreds of them. Manning’s message was that separatism was not the answer. Rather, what was needed was “reform” of the confederation, in which the west could become an equal partner. He summed it all up with the simple mantra: The west wants in.
Hundreds scrapped their separatist memberships, and joined Preston Manning’s newly minted Reform Party. Over the ensuing decade he changed the political landscape forever. After growing pains until hell wouldn’t have any more, in 2006 Stephen Harper, one time policy guru for Preston Manning, emerged to form a minority Conservative government.
The west was finally in.

Rally For Canada, scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 6 in various cities across Canada. Click the link for details.
Ralph Goodale should also hear from you, preferably by phone. (306) 585-2202
As the single Liberal elected in this province, Goodale has participated in removing Saskatchewan’s 13 voices from the government side of the house, submitting our growing resource economy to the extortionist whims of Quebec and the Ontario trade unions – all for the sake of one last shot as his own comfy fur entitlement.
It doesn’t matter if he’s your MP, call his office and do some yelling.
Update – This is the fastest growing online petition I’ve ever seen. Our Right to Vote on the Coalition Government
Now, if someone would only start an “Our Right To Kick Ralph Goodale’s Ass All The Way To The Manitoba Border” petition.

But sometimes you just have to stand back and admire his style.
Reaction…
Bob Rae’s “This is unfair!” moment.
“Should the government slash public funding for federal parties?” A CTV poll goes horribly wrong.
Shock and Awe.
Lots more in the comments.

Yowza.

Casually and, almost, with pride, Michael Ignatieff declared he owned no stocks. He never owned a single stock in his entire life. No mutual funds, nothing.
That’s right, the future would-be king has no personal experience of making a single decision around investing in companies. Not even with his banker to decide whether to put RRSP contributions into a dividend fund or index fund. He wouldn’t know the difference. Or, if at best, he understood the notional difference, he had no experience of the difference.

(Previous)

National Post;

After announcing he is not running against fellow Liberal candidates but “against Stephen Harper and the Conservative government,” [Michael Ignatieff] charged them with dishonesty, incompetence and something close to bigotry and racism.
“We do not want a Canada where the colour of your skin, the language that you speak, the country you originated from determines how well you survive this economic downturn,” Mr. Ignatieff declared. Liberals, he added, “are going to fight for all Canadians to get the same shot at the economic dream.”
[…]
It’s a desperate-seeming strategy, even if certain tired elements within the Liberal party — ageing spin doctors seeking to recapture their glory days of smearing Stockwell Day — haven’t gotten tired of it. Why, one wonders, is Mr. Ignatieff taking tactical cues from the Adscam-era demagogues who gave his party such a bad name in the first place?

Indeed. For his opening move, the demagogue mentions an Ignatieff NYT piece from 2004 – without linking it.

Ignatieff initially supported the [Iraq] war – as had the Clintons, and as had most of the Democratic Party establishment.By March 2004 – long before he became an MP, let alone a Liberal leadership contestant – he was writing in the New York Times that he had been wrong. That impressed me.

And for good reason. Oops! Here’s what Ignatieff actually wrote about his support for bombing Iraq (a country chock full of brown people!);

The discovery that Hussein didn’t have weapons after all surprises me, but it doesn’t change my view of the essential issue. I never thought the key question was what weapons he actually possessed but rather what intentions he had.

Ignatieff concludes the op-ed by arguing (rightly, in my opinion) that having intervened, the US was duty bound to pursue the Iraq war to a successful outcome;

If the United States falters now, civil war is entirely possible. If it falters, it will betray everyone who has died for something better.
Interventions amount to a promise: we promise that we will leave the country better than we found it; we promise that those who died to get there did not die in vain.

It wasn’t until he decided to run for political office – in a country he hadn’t lived in since 1978 – that Ignatieff had a “change of heart”.
But that’s just predictable spin on an issue that died earlier this year when the tides in Iraq turned in George Bush’s favour. It’s this passage, from the second paragraph, that caught my eye;

As usual we were talking about ourselves: what America is and how to use its frightening power in the world.

In 2004, Michael Ignatieff not only continued to support the prosecution of the Iraq war, he publicly self-identified as American to a New York Times audience.
Again, it wasn’t until he decided to run for political office – in a country he hadn’t lived in since 1978 – that he had a “change of heart”.
And he has his shiny new spin-doctor to thank for pointing it out.

The Chicago Boys – at the WSJ, via a reader who advises ” Keep an eye on how Obama solves his ‘Fitzgerald problem.’ Presidents, of course, have the right to fire any and all US Attorneys for no good reason at all. Fitzgerald is getting dangerously close to Obama and his associates.”

One of the first Obama political boosters, Tony Rezko, is at the center of the state’s highest profile corruption case. Recall that in June the Chicago real-estate developer and Democratic fundraiser was convicted on 16 counts of influence peddling. His sentencing was delayed this month to let Mr. Rezko “engage in discussions” with prosecutors. In other words, Mr. Fitzgerald wants him to spill the beans on Illinois corruption, possibly up to Governor Rod Blagojevich, perhaps in return for a shorter prison term. (Mr. Rezko still faces trial in Chicago in a $10 million business fraud case, as well in Nevada over unpaid casino-gambling debts.)
The Blagojevich administration has been under investigation for years. Mr. Rezko, who raised money for the Governor, solicited $7 million in kickbacks from private firms in exchange for steering state contracts their way. Prosecutors are now interested in toll highway vendor contracts granted by the administration with Mr. Rezko’s involvement. They also are looking into who paid for the renovations of the Blagojevich home in Chicago; Mr. Rezko’s defunct construction company was the contractor on the project. Meantime, the Governor’s approval ratings have sunk to 13%, and Democrats in the state House may move to impeach him.

A Philadelphia lawyer offers advice on “smash mouth” Emanuel.

Again, while supporting Hillary Clinton for president, Mr. Emanuel remained in good standing with Chicago’s Daley Machine. Yet, as I wrote earlier this year, the Democratic primary season featured a contest between the Daleys and Kennedys on one side and the Clintons on the other. Mr. Emanuel’s appointment as White House chief of staff shows effective he was in keeping one foot in each camp.
Then again, maybe the incoming administration is just going to be all Chicago, all the time.

Breaking New Kind Of Politics News! Barack Obama’s economic advisory board has been very good to him…

America – still out of touch with the world.

Out with the old.
In with the new!

*
(h/t Joe)
Update – “Biegun, who spent dozens and dozens of hours briefing Palin on these issues, is happy to defend her, on the record, under his own name.”
And ” [Newsweek] might want to check out Wikipedia before publishing the next batch of Palin smears.”.

For all Obama’s professed ability to motivate new voters, it seems that more people turned out for Kerry vs Bush than for McCain vs Obama.
2004 Popular Vote: 121,069,054
Bush 62,040,610 Kerry 59,028,444
2008 Popular Vote: 118,225,016
Obama 62,682,389 McCain 55,543,527
Those figures may be preliminary, but considering the population growth in the past four years and the hype surrounding Obama, it’s interesting what the clear light of November 5th has to say. (For one thing, it’s seems he’s scarcely more popular today than Bush was two years into the Iraq war.)
Related: Short coat tails. Gay marriage bans look to have passed from Florida to California. So much for the end of social conservativism.
More on the numbers here. As commentor Free Thinker points out, considering his “unprecedented half billion dollar war chest, total media subservience, timely stock market panic, celebrity endorsements” (not to mention the massive potential for voter fraud in certain precincts) perhaps the Democrats Chicago machine should be asking themselves what went wrong?
Nov. 6 Update – American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate (pdf)

Despite lofty predictions by some academics, pundits, and practitioners that voter turnout would reach levels not seen since the turn of the last century, the percentage of eligible citizens casting ballots in the 2008 presidential election stayed at virtually the same relatively high level as it reached in the polarized election of 2004.

Canada: Suddenly the Conservative Option.

Open Thread as first polls begin to close.
You’re supposed to ignore exit polls, and with good reason, but these are entertaining, nonetheless.
Stephen Taylor is liveblogging with an electoral map as icing.
Update – 8:45 eastern
Well, as indicators stand now (Florida not good, other battlegrounds tight), look at the bright side – the big spending, big government Republicans are getting what they deserve tonight, albeit for all the wrong reasons. The people get the government they deserve, or so it is said, and with the even bigger spending Democrat-led Congress posting 8% approval ratings, maybe it’s more of the same they wanted all along.
Conservative renewal south of the border is long overdue, and my hunch is that the combination of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are just the folks to pull it off. I only hope our economy can withstand the protectionist winds about to blow our way.
Though, every time the networks compare McCain’s vote totals to Bush ’04, I wonder if they wouldn’t have done better had W. been back on the ticket. I miss him already.
Oh, and I nearly forgot the best part. Tomorrow, the election over and awash in red ink, the slashing at newspapers and networks begins in earnest.
Update: Good pre-postmortem here
Update: A glimmer of hope: Norm Coleman (who led the fight to investigate Oil For Food) has pulled a little ahead of Al Franken in Minnesota with 50% of the polls reporting.
John Derbyshire compares Obama to a different history making politician. And quite rightly.

(Note – Today’s “while they vote” linkfest updates continue here.)

I’ll be following the events of today as best as I can, as I have work demands as well. I recommend you follow the usual hot spots for updates – Drudgereport, Instapundit, and NRO’s The Corner.
Lots at PJM and Hot Air
Just a reminder – beware the exit poll reports. They were intentionally wrong (manipulated and leaked) in 2000, wrong in 2004 and wrong again in 2006.
One I”ll be watching – on behalf of the wrongly accused, and Murtha-convicted Marines of “Haditha”.
Speaking of which – for all the mealy-mouthed Democratic “support” for the troops, why is it always the Republicans doing the suing to ensure military votes are counted
Family Reunion in Chicago
Also, via Free Dominion;

If you are a Canadian and have volunteered on the McCain/Palin ticket, please contact Jeff Semple
jeff.semple@cbc.ca

Update – Voter intimidation in Philadelphia

For what it’s worth – behind the scenes chatter indicates that the McCain campaign genuinely believes they have a chance at pulling out a win, based on the way the polls have been breaking in battleground states.
Drop your own links in the comments. I’ll start a new thread for discussion once actual returns begin to come in.
A Why Vote McCain-Palin argument from one of my favourite states – North Carolina. (With a shout out to my lurking dogshow peeps there!)
Obama – McCain, the younger years. Heh