With all the talk about the upcoming American Election, it can be easy to forget that we have one coming in Canada as well; easy to forget unless you attend Humber Valley Village Middle School where 150 liberal campaign signs for candidate Borys Wrzesnewskyj were collected and placed in the shape of a giant phallus (unfortunately there is no picture to accompany the article). 

Why does it seem like the election to the south is getting so much more coverage than our homegrown election? There’s a few reasons:

• It lasts longer. The American Election has been going on forever. The Canadian election will start later and finish earlier. Why? In order to save money, Canadian Federal Elections usually only last the legally mandated minimum length: 36 days. The 1997, 2000, 2004 federal elections were all 36 days. 
• It’s more expensive. Campaign finance is much larger in America. In Canada each party is permitted to spend about 20 million dollars. In America the election costs billions. Plural. Billions.
• It’s more dramatic. The American Election features “not just an eloquent young senator aiming to be the first black president in U.S. history, but now the youngest woman to make it onto a presidential ticket.“
• Canadian Celebrities aren’t as ridiculous. It’s unfortunate that Mike Myers won’t make hilarious comments like Matt Damon who wants to know if Sarah Palin thinks dinosaurs were alive 4000 years ago, and believes that “If you do the actuary tables, there’s a 1/3 chance McCain will not survive his term.”

Green Party leader Elizabeth May has been pleading with Canadians to turn off CNN and switch to CBC. ”I beg you, do not sleep through this election,” she urged voters.

“We share media markets and you’ve certainly got an exciting play going on south of the border, so it’s easy to see why Canadians are distracted,” David Biette, director of the Canada Institute at Washington’s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said Sunday.

Whether we watch it or not, on October 14th Canadians will vote in their 40th general election. Is it worrisome that most Canadians know the vice presidential candidates for both major parties in America, but not the current Deputy Prime Minister? Yes, probably. So in the spirit of promoting discourse on Canadian Politics, here’s how I’m calling it.

How I Think This One’s Gonna Go:

Of course many things will be important in determining the outcome of the coming election, but one issue which will be of growing importance is the growing divide between urban and rural votes. The last election swung Conservative for the first time in many years largely due to increased right wing voting from rural areas, and the liberals have done nothing to correct it; in fact, they’ve made things worse. In the 2000 election, the right took 41% of English Canada’s rural ridings.  Six years later, in rural constituencies the Conservatives took 59% of English Canada, and 31% of Quebec.

The Liberals are proposing the Green Shift which is a income tax cut offset by a new carbon tax. This policy will benefit the 8/10 Canadians that live in big cities and use public transportation but will cost crucial rural votes. While green policies may be beneficial, they aren’t going to help getting the rural seats the liberals need to keep the Conservatives from controlling the House of Commons

On the other side of the bench, Stephen Harper took the least environmentally friendly four vehicle motorcade he could find from 24 Sussex Dr. to Rideau Hall 400m away to dissolve Parliament. He proposed a diesel tax cut -  a fuel used primarily in agricultural equipment, pickup trucks, and other favourites of rural Canadians.

There are lots of other issues on the table for this election including our continued role in Afghanistan, the coming economic downturn, and why our food keeps making us sick. The drama here will be like Canadian TV: it may not have the flash or production of what comes from America, and it won’t be on for as long, but at least it was inexpensive.