One defends and the other conquers

I'm sure you've all been intensely following the Nova Scotia election (ha ha!). If you haven't, well, it might be worth at least glancing at tonight's results, because Nova Scotia is poised to become Canada's fifth province to succumb to the socialist hordes.

The latest polls have Darrell Dexter's NDP (campaign poster to the left) on pace for a majority government, so things do not look good for the fiddler, (outgoing) Premier Rodney MacDonald. The real intrigue in this one may be the race for second place, with the Liberals and Tories neck-and-neck by all accounts.

Speaking of which, I can guarantee that Liberal leader Stephen McNeil would not only have become opposition leader, but possibly also Premier, had he run TV ads with the tag-line "MacDonald fiddled while the economy burned".



I won't be watching this one too closely, but all you Nova Scotia politicos should feel free to discuss the results in the comments section as they roll in.

From the home office in Balls Creek....

This is pretty good. I think Rodney MacDonald is my new favourite Premier...

The Carp Hits the Fan

I won't pretend to understand how equalization works. I won't pretend to understand if the "opt back" to the Atlantic Accord is the same or different than the original Atlantic Accord. I won't pontificate on the pros and cons of side deals with the provinces. I won't speculate on the legitimacy of the Senate holding up a budget, or of provinces suing the federal government.

But I will say that the optics of the atlantic disord we're seeing right now are very very bad. One MP down. Another wavering. Peter MacKay butting heads with his boss. A non-blowhard Premier from Atlantic Canada going to war with Harper. Plunging poll numbers out east.

Remember how Atlantic Canada punished Chretien and the Liberals in 1997 over cuts to EI? I'm betting a few Tory MPs out east are feeling a little nervous right about now.