ColbyCosh.com

From your NP post:

It is, in fact, predicated on those results, which failed to give any party a clear majority in the House of Commons.

Thank you for that. It's cold comfort, though, for an ex-pat liberal-type guy who thought a Conservative minority in the absence of any credible Liberal leadership was not such a bad thing.
I've been away for ten years. I miss and love Canada--all ten provinces and three territories of her. Am I a fucking idiot for feeling this way? I'm seriously wavering...

Nah, you're not. Like Trudeau said, 90% of Canadian politics is just blind emotion. Most of the country feels the same way you do.

A little quibble with your statistics: the question asked during the last election was "which of these parties should form the government?" The Conservatives received 38% of the popular vote. The other parties received 62%. A coalition government received zero votes because it wasn't on the ballot. A poll only provides statistics for the question you ask. As a practical political example of this phenomenon, consider the leadership contests won by Stephane Dion and Ed Stelmach. Neither of them was in the front rank of contenders, but both of them won by being everybody's second choice. The Liberal & NDP's attempt to spin these election results is cheap sophistry at best, and at worst reflects the deficit of critical thinking in their parties that facilitates their deficit spending.

Actually most rallies are dry, outdoor pick up bars.

Well, the big rally was yesterday. I didn't go, and the fact that right-wingers aren't really the rallying type will keep the turnout "artificially" low as it was.

My mother was planning to attend the rally, but decided that the icy roads and downtown parking difficulties made it not worth going. My friend from northeast Alberta was going to come, but her computer was having difficulty so she had her boyfriend come fix it before he went back to Fort Mac. A coworker who lives mere blocks from Linda Duncan's downtown office decided going to the new Leg grounds location was too far of a walk. Another friend decided to help his young son practice playing hockey rather than rally, etc. etc.

Meanwhile every remotely pro-coalition person I know skipped their union job to go (or didn't have anything to do as UofA classes ended the previous day). When all is said and done, angry marches on the steps of the building who's top dog vigorously opposes the coalition as well were secondary to family, personal well being, and time with friends. Besides, Parliament got prorogued by "Harper the Pro Roguer", so those who don't want to spend Christmas saying a prayer for "the well being of Prime Minister Dion" got their wish.