Judging from the coverage on Global (as an aside, is there really no one else covering this? anywhere? internet? radio? Is Lynda Steele the best person they could find?) it looks like Dinning will finish first on the "first ballot", but Captain Vague's pretty solidly in second. Based on what I've heard, that means that he's going to come up the middle and win on the "second ballot".

(Speaking of which, I wonder why Global's implying that there would be an interval to count the "second ballot" of the preferential system. When you're tabulating the first-choice votes, wouldn't you enter in the second choices at the same time? It would mean that you could have run-off results, well, instantaneously. Strange.)

As for the, uh, nerd, maybe it's because he's got that kind of image that I like him. It really seemed like it was, as Rick Mercer describes, the underdog taking it from the establishment candidates. I disagree with his actions on the dubious Québecois "nation" issue, but he seems like a solid figure -- to contrast with his predecessor. For the moment, I like what I hear from Dion, and I'm hopeful that a good relationship with Gerard Kennedy and some taking of the advice of Howard Dean about being a national party will make the Liberals a positive choice, rather than just "not-the-Conservatives" as they have been for the past couple of elections.

(One last thought: could the Conservatives play worse music at their convention?)

i'm happy with Dion... let's just hope he does stuff in this portfolio... and not that it's a major issue on here, what's wrong with choosing the nerd?


and alberta??
from CTV posted 20 minutes ago:
"With 34 of 83 constituencies reporting Saturday night, Dinning and Ed Stelmach are tied at 36 per cent. Ted Morton has 28 per cent."

this could get interesting... though, it depends on whether they're counting urban or rural constituencies thus far...

Rick Mercer:

The Liberals went into this convention with a host of choices. They could have gone with a battle-tested politician, a former athlete, a world famous academic or a food bank founder from the West; at the end of the day they choose the nerd.

That’s pretty Canadian.

bugger


what is this? so Moreau's out for the season, Hemsky's out for the "forseeable future" with a shoulder injury, and Smyth just broke his thumb?

have the Oilers run out of luck??

damnit! okay, don't think like that... they just had a great streak... maybe they're just going to go through a slump for a while... just a little while, though, right?

Well, that was an interesting turn of events. Though Kennedy didn't win, he basically played kingmaker. He picked the correct time to throw his support behind Dion, got an astonishing 90% of his delegates to support Dion, and Dion rode the wave the rest of the way to the leadership. I guess what was likely the last delegate convention this country will see was among the most surprising in history.

Dion's speech was pretty satisfyingly optimistic, too. He seemed to say the right things to unite the party, pay tribute to previous leaders, and invite the other candidates to work with him. And, not too surprisingly, the words "sustainable environment" were front and center in the speech. His track record seems to indicate dogged adherence to principle, in spite of the obstacles facing him (see: the Clarity Act, and his short tenure working on the Kyoto file.) We've been fooled before by rhetoric (*cough* Paul Martin), so it remains to be seen whether he lives up to his speech, but, in lieu of a extensive record on which to base a decision, he at least feels like a positive choice.

As for the other leadership vote, it'll probably be less dramatic, though there may also be a significant change. I did find the recent comparisons of Ed Stelmach to Harry Strom (the last SoCred Premier of Alberta), apropos of nothing, interesting. One wonders how much of a threat the other two candidates consider Stelmach to be. At the very least, if he made it to the final ballot, he's definitely got the second choice support, meaning there's a good chance that he could end up pulling a Dionâ„¢.

Of course, if it does end up being Dinning or Morton (who I hear is the Man), the party could end up being divided. Which, to be selfish, wouldn't be an altogether bad thing.

well, you know... if he's good enough for Ontario, why wouldn't he be good enough for all of Canada? even if all he'll do is drain our coffers...



are you holding your breath to find out how entirely red the new, uh, head neck of Alberta's PC party is going to be? this could be interesting... i'm half wishing for an end to the dynasty, but at the same time, i just don't know...

that and i didn't vote, because, in the end, i just didn't feel like i knew enough.

Aww, damn. Gerard Kennedy is out of the Liberal leadership race, throwing his support behind Stephane Dion. I guess if you could just add their votes together, he'd be the front-runner. Still, I think it's a shame; he was the most impressive Liberal I'd seen in a while.

How they can seriously consider Bob Rae (especially post-Rick-Mercer-skinny-dipping) I'll never know...

i like
MAKE OUT NOT WAR

seriously this is what i found in the Google image search for that - blame Google

it's funny cause it's true

Whoops! Correction, I'm turning more nerdy!

Bad new: I got Ganked twice by noobkillers tonight.
Good new: Just forced myself to grind out 3 level tonight.

Gah I need to get a life... Actually since my bro is leaving for 6 months I think Lineage will just have to fill in that void. I'm turning so nerdy!