Sunday, May 01, 2011 :::
As I mentioned earlier, Canada has an election tomorrow (today, by the time you read this). The main story of the campaign, as of last week, has been the surge of the New Democrats - I referred to them as Canada's third national party, but they will probably be the second in the next parliament. Apparently, Canadians have taken a shine to their leader, John Layton (more often called Jack, but "John" will seem more appropriate by the end of the next paragraph).
Last week, though, they hit what will probably be a little bit of a snag in the news that, fifteen years ago, Layton was caught naked in a raid of a massage parlor that had - to put it delicately - diversified its business in a way that was neither legal nor particularly original. Layton was not charged with anything; one could suppose that this was because he was on the Toronto city council, but from what I know, lack of evidence is a completely supportable explanation.
The NDP had a kind of weird press conference on the matter in which Layton stood alongside his wife and fellow MP, Olivia Chow, as she made a statement on the matter and neither took any questions.
My guess is that most of those Canadians considering voting for the NDP will not let this sway them. Like the news, earlier tonight, that Osama bin Laden has been killed, this is probably more important as a justifiable source of entertainment than for its real effect on the world. My reason for relating it is partly for its own entertainment value, but mostly just so you will understand this "tweet" in response to the press conference.Labels: Canada
::: posted by Steven at 11:39 PM
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