Free Republic

OTTAWA - Over 800 special ballots cast during the recent federal election were mistakenly kept at the office of a returning officer in B.C., Elections Canada says. ... The agency says all registered political parties have been informed that 822 special ballots cast by electors in 74 electoral districts across the country were left with the returning officer in the riding of Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam. Elections Canada says the ballots should have been returned to its headquarters by April 28 at 6 p.m. to allow them to be counted. Over 500 of the ballots mistakenly left in Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam were for...

Stéphane Dion, who came from fourth-place standing to win the leadership of Canada's Liberal Party early this month, declared immediate war on the minority Conservative government last week, and made it clear he is determined to force a late-winter election. Implicitly, he made something else clear. He will attack the government on two principal issues, both of them integral to Canadian-American relations. One is the Kyoto Treaty, the other the Canadian role in Afghanistan. If he wins the election, therefore, America's northern neighbor will once again become vaguely hostile territory, as it was under the last Liberal government. On Kyoto,...

What publication ban? A media blackout that makes it illegal to publish early election results wasn't enough to stop the CBC from broadcasting results for all the world to hear more than two hours before all polls were closed. Anyone who tuned into the Radio Canada International's radio feed Monday night got a sneak peek at election results from Atlantic Canada. It didn't take long for bloggers, who were busy trolling the Internet as they waited for the ban to be lifted, to figure out that it was possible to get an early play-by-play of the election results. "It appears...