Journal: News & Comment

Permalinks to this entry: individual page or in monthly context. For more material from my journal, visit my home page or the archive.

Elections - one down, one to go

Today is the U.S. national election. We have one here in Canada on November 27. Whatever its flaws, Canada's parliamentary system has two obvious benefits over the U.S. model:

1. We have a multitude of parties -- in this election, five major ones that already have seats in Parliament.

2. Campaigns don't drag on forever. Our November 27 election was called (on the Prime Minister's whim, but that's another debate) a little over a week ago, so the whole campaign lasts slightly over a month. Since the U.S. has regularly scheduled elections every four years, the campaigns seem to start about half way through the term, and last 18 interminable months, or longer.

Right now, there seems little doubt that Jean Chretien will win his third term as Canada's Prime Minister. The outcome of the American election is much less clear. We'll all know tonight.

 |