The big Canadian national event July 3–12, 2009 is the Calgary Stampede. This year’s marshal for the July 3 Stampede parade was Canada’s most painstaking (and expensive?) TV handyman, Mike Holmes. He at least "lives outside of Toronto, ON." And so a further blow of sorts was struck for national unity. East is east and west is west, but it is still all the same country.

It nonetheless may or may not be a sign of what lies ahead back east in Ottawa this fall that both Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff — in between flipping pancakes and wearing cowboy hats (in which neither of them looks good, unlike, e.g., Laureen Ann Teskey Harper) — are using the 2009 stampede as a platform for what may or may not be the start of yet another Canadian federal election campaign. Whatever happens, one thing that is still not likely to be an election issue this coming time around, whenever it exactly proves to be, is the future of the British monarchy in Canada. Even so, according to a new Strategic Counsel opinion poll: "The monarchy is a bust with today's Canadians ...65 per cent ... thought the ties to the Crown should be severed once [Queen Elizabeth II] passes." Our own breathtaking news is that the counterweights site will be undergoing some renovations very soon. In the process it will be unavailable for a few days. But then it will be back in a brand new suit — bigger and better than ever (well better at least)!

Too close to a Conservative majority for comfort? OCTOBER 14, 11:20 PM. [UPDATED OCTOBER 15 BELOW]. The exact results of Canada’s 40th federal election remain uncertain at this still comparatively early hour. But it is quite clear that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have done considerably better than I for one quite expected and/or hoped. They have not won even a bare majority of seats in the Canadian House of Commons. But at this exact moment they are just a dozen or so short of the magic number of 155 in a 308-seat House — with somewhat better than 37% of the popular vote. The Liberals have similarly done considerably worse than I expected and/or hoped — some 75 seats at the moment, with somewhat better than 27% of the popular vote. Right now the New Democrats seem to have 38 seats with more than 18% of the vote. However you look at it, and all things considered, in the end Mr. Harper has done rather better than well enough. Just what the results mean for how federal government and politics in Canada will unfold over the next few years is not entirely clear. But Mr. Harper has certainly won a stronger mandate than he had before (although he has done not so well in Quebec, very badly in Newfoundland and Labrador, and not so well again in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver). His instinct will no doubt be even more to govern as if he does have a majority — and he will likely enough be able to get away with it for a while. (And all the talk of an opposition governing coalition will probably suddenly vanish, for at least a while as well.)

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The "Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday [August 4] shows the race for the White House is tied with Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote. However, when ‘leaners’ are included, it’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%. ... This is the first time McCain has enjoyed even a statistically insignificant advantage of any sort since Obama clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3." Or, as perhaps a bit too whimsically explained in the Times of London: "Maybe Obama won't make it to the White House ... He could default on his manifest destiny, after all." Meanwhile, back in Canada, according to Kelly McParland at the National Post: "Evaluated from the perspective of schoolyard quarrels, this [past] week’s exchange between Stéphane Dion and Stephen Harper can be seen in either of two ways ... Mr. Dion drew a line in the sand when he intimated that he’s itching to get Mr. Harper ... with both barrels of the Liberals’ carbon tax plan ... Or ... it was Mr. Harper who stuck his toe in ... when he issued his dare: not just once, but three times by my count ... Either way it’s hard to see how we can avoid an election sometime before Christmas. If we do, one of the two men is going to look decidedly foolish."

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