I woke up this morning to the weirdest newscast ever. Apparently Stephane Dion is the new Leader of the Liberal Party. Official leader of the opposition, he is potentially Canada’s next prime minister.
He came out of nowhere.
Perhaps I am overly ignorant when it comes to Canadian politics, but there i was yesterday morning, jogging away on my treadmill at Goodlife gyms, watching the 2nd ballot vote. I figured the 2nd vote was something like the Bush/Gore recount some four years ago but then it dawned on me that despite Ignatieff winning majority vote at some 30-odd percentage, you needed MAJORITY vote until winning. That’s a pretty smart idea, I thought to myself. But i figured Ignatieff would the natural winner, considering he was leading in the polls already and had such an prominent international profile, along with his dalton-mcguinty’esque demeanor and hey, he looks pretty prime ministerial. I would vote for him…maybe. But as it turns out, politics is a one word phrase for “appearances are deceiving” because all of a sudden all the minor runners such as Scott Brison, Ken Dryden, and Joe Volpe were quietly resigning their candidacy and putting their support behind Bob Rae, resident political veteran. I don’t know much about Canadian politics and even I’ve heard of Bob Rae. So okay, i think i’ve got a handle on this politics thing (i have seen more than one episode of West Wing, afterall – nudge, wink), I’m going to guess that Bob Rae will win. It seems as though everyone is putting their support behind him. It was supposed to be a two-horse race.
So how on earth did I wake up this morning to Stephane Dion winning?? It was like Seabiscuit come to life. Moreover, how did Ed Stelmach, farmer-next-door-if-farms-were-within-walking-distance, win the Alberta premiership??!
It was like Canada became the land where the underdogs really do win.
boloh 
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