As if I weren't nervous enough about this election, the Red Sox play a crucial playoff game tonight. If we can get CBC without the cable box, we can set up two TVs next to each other, put them both on mute, and watch the game and election returns at the same time. We'll find out shortly if this is possible.
This whole election thing is so scary. If Canada had proportional representation, we could know that the will of the people was reflected in the House of Commons. As it stands now, it all depends on who lives where. That's no way to run a democracy.
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Update. It doesn't work. No TV without a cable box. So we'll put the game on a laptop and election returns on TV.
19 comments:
"This whole election thing is so scary."
I have a funny feeling you are going to see, up close and personal, just how *much* this first-past-the-post system sucks.
I hope I am wrong, but I have a really, really bad feeling about this...
I have a funny feeling you are going to see, up close and personal, just how *much* this first-past-the-post system sucks.
Pagolak, with respect, this is my second election in Canada, and there is an even worse FPTP system where I am from.
I hope I am wrong, but I have a really, really bad feeling about this...
Luckily the election will not be decided based on your feelings.
Luckily the election will not be decided based on your feelings.
Laughing at Laura and her bluntness. Speaking of tonight's results I wonder if any of wmtc's Atlantic readers will post their results here. One of the things I really hate about Elections Canada is this stupid blackout rule that prevents any info from other provinces that close earlier. Blogs will be the only way for Ontarians to find out the Atlantic results until our polls close.
One of the things I really hate about Elections Canada is this stupid blackout rule that prevents any info from other provinces that close earlier. Blogs will be the only way for Ontarians to find out the Atlantic results until our polls close.
While I certainly see the frustration that causes, I'm not so sure it's a bad idea. In countries with as broad a time spectrum as ours, it feels like information from returns in the east could affect voter turnout in the west. I've not read any studies of this, and since you guys have the blackout rules, any studies done would most likely be of our presidential elections, which are not really comparable.
That said, how can this be enforced in the internet age? It seems like the results of canadian elections would be interesting to people in other countries as well, and the Canadian laws restricting the return info would not apply to websites based elsewhere in the world.
Laughing at Laura and her bluntness.
Heh, well, I don't want anyone raining on my hope while I still have it!
Speaking of tonight's results I wonder if any of wmtc's Atlantic readers will post their results here.
Oh, everyone is welcome to. I could put up a post soliciting results as they come in.
One of the things I really hate about Elections Canada is this stupid blackout rule that prevents any info from other provinces that close earlier. Blogs will be the only way for Ontarians to find out the Atlantic results until our polls close.
Hm, well, in the US, networks used to be highly criticized for calling the election before west coast polls had closed, and many people gave up on voting. So there was an agreement not to do that. Elections Canada may be onto something, even if in this day of citizen journalism, it's a bit of a fiction.
Sarah, we think alike. :)
I'm still getting the allegedly blacked out TV channels (113-115, 124 and 125 if you have the same Rogers as I do). We'll see if they're still there in 10 minutes.
I'm still getting the blacked out channels too. 7:27. Let's see if it switches off in 3 mins.
Blackout stations are coming in on Rogers time-shifting.
I'm on 125 and it's still there, but it keeps freezing and pixelating. I'm not sure if that's the blackout going through or if it's just technical difficulties.
Imp Strump, I had the same thing, then it swtiched off. Now only the stupid Global b'cast is coming in.
I've still got 124, but it still keeps freezing. It's like youtube over a slow connection.
Global going squirrley now. I think it's about to go off the air.
Having recently moved to Boston and now working near Fenway, I am obsessed with both results too. Sometimes CSPAN picks up the CBC feed late at night so that might be a way to get both "numbers". If any of you know can I appreciate this, I literally bumped right into Buck Martinez and Chip Carey around 4:00 today on Boylston Street about a mile east of Fenway. They were walking to work on a beautiful fall day.
Having recently moved to Boston and now working near Fenway, I am obsessed with both results too.
Cool!!
If any of you know can I appreciate this, I literally bumped right into Buck Martinez and Chip Carey around 4:00 today on Boylston Street about a mile east of Fenway.
If only I had known! I would have asked you to spit on them for me.
We are so incensed at their broadcast, we're watching with the game on mute and listening to ESPN radio.
Sarah, we think alike. :)
I'm shocked, Laura. Simply shocked. /sarcasm
Well, I didn't know about this blockout thing. I don't know what I think about it yet. What I do know is that when I turned CBC newsworld off before work this am Colleen Jones was touring the election special" set. I just turned it on again 14 hours later and... Suhanna Marchand is touring the set of the "election special". Down with the black out!!! Oh who am I kidding, I was weaned on repetative CBC hourly newscasts. Repetition is what they are made of.
"As it stands now, it all depends on who lives where. That's no way to run a democracy."
And, boy, I'm not sure how well this whole "strategic voting" thing is gonna work! I just spent Thanksgiving dinner trying to talk my sister and my parents out of voting Liberal in their respective ridings, because they apparently just didn't get it. They figured that since the Cons have been (at times) rising in the polls they should vote Liberal instead of NDP, in the spirit of ABC. Except that the Cons stand NO chance of winning either of these ridings. Olivia Chow's Trinity-Spadina riding??? Ummm, just vote for her, it'll be okay.
And my folks aren't completely politically illiterate. They're not "political", but..oh boy.
Crap, I managed to stop biting my nails for the last 6 months (really hard), but they are so calling out to me! Nervous too...
Me too with the nails.
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