Trail Spotter:

Huh?! Wha? Serious? ELECTION!!!

Well, then.

Seems we have work to do.

With the writ dropped, and public interest in this new campaign running at historic highs, in the news-interest stratosphere of moon landings and cancer cures -- do I have any choice but to revive this long dormant blog?

OK. 17 month dormant blog.

I'll be will updating the links, sources, rumours, attacks, etc over the coming days.

Stay tuned.

[Canadian Election]

Sketching things out.

No group packs more punch into so little space than editorial cartoonists.

Daryl Cagle at Slate / MSN has the Canadian Cartoon Tour.

While you're there, check out the other Cartoon Categories from around the world.

UPDATE: The CBC's Cartoon Gallery is also up, with content from some of the smaller papers.

As long as the boss doesn't find out how much time you're wasting...

Smile for the cameras

David Akin, the Globe/CTV technology and business reporter takes the OMPP to task on his blog:

I've got a couple of methodological nit-picks with the Observatory's mission. First: The Observatory is watching the trends of seven daily newspapers and will try to extrapolate from that survey some ideas about the media's influence on the current election. Well, there's only roughly a million Canadians watching CTV National News every night. Global National, depending on the night, is clocking real close to 900,000 viewers a night. And between its national and local radio and television programming, CBC is about as dominant a voice as it gets when it comes to media in this country. So if you were serious about wanting to study media bias and the election, why wouldn't you include broadcasters?

Second: There's that panel. Wow. Talk about the establishment elite talking about themselves. Cooper, Miljan, Segal, Watson, and Wells are all former or current National Post/Fraser Institute/conservative commentators. That's five out of seven (and I don't know Donna Logan or Michel Vastel's work well enough to put them in a cubbyhole) all coming from or associated with one very blue side of the political spectrum

No argument.

Know your source.

But I'm not convinced newspaper and TV coverage are so different in tone as to alter the media's impact. Invididual reporters can get some traction on a story, break some news, turn some heads. But few break from the pack journalism. And voters don't base the decisions on one media source, or medium.

Failing some unpreceedented scandal or spectacular performance, elections are about cumulative impressions; about modern marketing, not serious policy.

It is interesting to note, while scoring positive / negative perceptions of stories (still a subjective exercise), the Liberals faced a late week surge of negative reportage. Recent polls show a slip in Liberal support.

Thumb-sucking journalism.

This whole Political - Media fixation with RIM's Blackberry wireless email is getting tiresome.

Stories in the Globe and CTV, mentions in media blogs abound.

Hacks and flacks packing the tech, appear breathless:

So powerful is the use of digital technology in the election that single comments can spread like wildfire along broadband lines and satellite signals, from war rooms in Ottawa to campaign buses rolling along distant highways in the Maritimes.

The wireless war of 2004 erupted Wednesday night when the NDP Leader went, as political operatives like to say, off message. (snip) The Liberal war room got the comments shortly after they were uttered, and e-mailed a response line to every reporter in its address book. It was, what one Liberal adviser acknowledged, "an opportunity."

Ah yes ... I remember the thrill of getting my first wireless email like it was ... well, about three years ago.

Not exactly cutting-edge technology.

Especially considering that the world's largest democracy cast over 380 million votes votes electronically last month.

Or the scope of US political parties' data mining projects to track voter intentions:

They know the magazines you read, the church you attend and whether you own a gun or support the environment. They know how many children you have and where they go to school. If they want, they can learn your job history, the size of your TV screen and the candidates you have supported.

And then, of course, there's ex-Democratic candidate Howard Dean's groundbreaking use of new media and technology, now spun-off to democracyforamerica.com

As I mentioned to the Montreal Gazette's E-file: The net is a bottom-up , democracy driven, media. Its interactive nature is what makes it attractive to younger people (or should I say young voters). But parties here still don't get it.

All Blackberrys do is talk down, and talkback.

Lemmie tell ya 'bout dem european elections, kids..

The CBC's web culture columnist Dan Brown courageously mentions the elephant in the campaign war room:

If the Flames win, will it change the election?

As every sports fan in this country knows, the Stanley Cup finals began Tuesday night. If the Calgary Flames go on to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the best-of-seven series, the victory will mark the first time in a decade that a Canadian team has won hockey's most sought-after trophy. It will be a remarkable achievement, one - if history is any guide - that will likely trigger an outpouring of national pride.

I hope the Corp. turns Dan loose on this election (full disclosure -- I've worked with him in the past). He's a great, too-the-point, sometimes milk-spewing funny, writer. Too bad about the shirts though...

The Montreal Gazette's E-File is joining the campaign blogsphere.

Latest flash ... the campaign planes are being christened:

It seems hacks on the NDP campaign plane can't decide on a moniker for their jet. Two possibilities are being considered - Class warfAir and Balance of PowAir - after the frontrunner, HiJack, was rejected, CanWest News reports.

This just in: reporters on Stephen Harper's plane have dubbed it United Scare-Lines.

Posted by Andy Riga on May 27, 2004 6:29 PM ET

The Globe Blog notes the Liberal's new moniker, and their transparent attempts to suck-up to the press corp, as the usual campaigns' battle of hospitality heats-up:

From: Clark, Campbell (With the Conservatives) Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 9:13 PM Subject: Midnight snack is the most important...

The Liberal campaign plane was officially dubbed Minorit-Air by the reporters, preferring a reference to the Liberals' chances to win another majority to other options - Canada Airship Lines, Million-Air, and Commandit-Air, the latter being a play on the French word for sponsor.

But it could just as aptly be called Fatten-Air. The Liberal campaign provides hot and cold running food, starting with eggs at the breakfast buffet and ending with midnight snacks.

Reporters were offered six meals during the day Wednesday - including a supper on board the plane of chicken or cannelloni, with berries in a chocolate cup. When the Liberals, flying from Montreal, stopped for a rally in Winnipeg, plates of local chocolates were brought on the plane.

As the plane flew to Victoria, margaritas and daiquiris were served. Paul Martin, clad in a jean jacket, chatted with reporters. And when the plane landed in Victoria - now after midnight by Eastern time, volunteers told reporters they had a "light supper"-- the 7th meal of the day -- awaiting at the hotel, including dim sum.
 
A happy reporter is a good (burp) reporter.

But keep in mind the campaigns charge the media for all travel.

Got it going on.

I should know who Jackson Murphy is.

Maybe I've been in Baghdad too long.

But his Dispatches Blog is hotter than Stacy's Mom.

It is what a blog should be.

Beautiful, clean, design; thorough, brief, updates; balanced photo content; sensible comment; link heavy.

It is a keeper. As good as anything in the States, and then some.

Slick stuff.

I've added it to my personal hotlist, and you should too. I'm sold (expect a pay pal donation).

I'll even forgive the Red Sox worship.

Seriously, someone hire this guy.

Citizen, Corps, scribes

The Ottawa Citizen adds some blogg goodness to their Campaign recipe --- Containing: The Robb Blog (Peter Robb) and Riley on the Road (Susan Riley). (courtesy: Terry Duggan at The Stantig Group)

The CBC also has more analysis and comment, featuring Dennis Trudeau among others. These seem to be proper columns, as oppposed to off the cuff blogs.

A place to start

Shame that we Canucks don't have the great political lead-up that lends itself to blogs like "Talking Point," "move-on" etc

But, for the political junkies out there a good start is blogscanada.

The site is broken down into mainstream media, independent commentators, official party blogs, etc.

The mainstream media have launched their election special sections, linked to the (non-intentional) left.

The CBC's Canada Votes promises some good depth, including a daily early morning media round up and commentary from Peter Kavanagh.

I like the election costs breakdown: "$265 million — $65 million higher than last time around.

CTV leads things off with a column from the most trusted anchor in Canada Lloyd Robertson, and follows up with the heavy video-linked Election 2004 site. Techno-geeks, like me, can salivate over CTV's Election Express studio on wheels.

Global / Canwest's Decision Canada is also on the road with anchor Kevin Newman Blog. Interesting to see the site follow-up the net's demographics with a prominent project: youth vote 2004.

The newspaper sites stick to the print basics: not adding much multimedia value, but extending analyses and depth.

The The Globe and Mail is promising blogs from their scribes on the buses, Campbell Clark (Liberals), Brian Laghi (Tories), Steven Chase (NDP), and Daniel LeBlanc (Bloc).

The Toronto Star has the news and columns of the day, but adds The Pulse: Campaign Diary 2004 from David Olive.

As always, worth keeping an eye on:

Kinsella

Wells.

Coyne.

Bourque.

And a new one elections predictions.

Anyone wishing to post thoughts at the blog is happy to -- just click below.