Predictions by David Warren (en francais)

Excellent piece from David Warren:

Predictions
The polls show the election race tightening. They seem to show that people in the Atlantic provinces, Montreal, and Toronto -- all Liberal bedrock in recent elections -- are having third thoughts about their second thoughts to maybe vote for the Conservatives this time. With an unprecedented number of “undecided”, I think it would be foolish to make election predictions even two days ahead. We’ll see what we see.

If the Liberals do better than expected on Monday, it will certainly have been because their scare campaign finally succeeded -- the dirtiest and most vicious politics we have seen in post-War Canada, and perhaps through our whole national history. But that in itself is no reason to despair. As I argued Wednesday, it is a scorched-earth strategy that will give diminishing returns in every subsequent election. The Internet is growing constantly, undermining the ability of any candidate to utter howlers or perform sleights that sympathetic media might once have let pass. Moreover, diversity of views and interests is re-entering the old media, via the “500-channel universe”.

An interesting comment buried within the article regarding the internet, blogs and how they are helping reshape discussions and issues in Canada. This will be an interesting article to revisit post-election.

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