A word about tonight
As technology lawyer Rob Hyndman reminds us on his gorgeous-looking blog, Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act prohibits the posting of election results from one part of the country while the polls remain open in another
Naturally I am strongly supportive of this enlightened law, requiring as it does that every website in the country monitor or close its comments boards to prevent people from reading (or posting) what they will most certainly read (and post) on certain foreign websites anyway.
I will be working tonight, desperately trying to pump out a column in time to meet the Post's -- ahem -- challenging deadline. So I certainly can't be weeding through the comments to ensure compliance with Elections Canada's guidelines (which may I emphasize again I strongly support). Neither does it seem reasonable to just shut down the whole site on the off-chance someone might spill the beans.
We will need, then, to maintain a voluntary blackout until all the polls have closed, across the country. It shouldn't be too long: staggered voting hours mean the polls close in most parts of the country at the same time -- 9:30 EST. The exceptions are Newfoundland (7:00 pm EST), Atlantic Canada (7:30 pm EST) and British Columbia (10:00 pm EST -- thanks to DM for the correct times.) Three hours, all told.
Mind you, while we're waiting for the polls to close, there doesn't seem any harm in passing the time speculating on the results of some future election, or perhaps warming up for the real thing by pretending to report the results from some election in a foreign or imaginary land, quite unlike our own, with completely different parties and completely different electoral districts.
But as for the results of this election: mum's the word.
UPDATE: "The early pages of Anne of Green Gables indicate that three quarters of the roads in PEI are red." Really? I'd no idea. And me, an avid reader of the Anne books. UPPERDATE: Old jokes are good ways of passing the time, too:
No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another electoral district before the close of all of the polling stations in that other electoral district.
Naturally I am strongly supportive of this enlightened law, requiring as it does that every website in the country monitor or close its comments boards to prevent people from reading (or posting) what they will most certainly read (and post) on certain foreign websites anyway.
I will be working tonight, desperately trying to pump out a column in time to meet the Post's -- ahem -- challenging deadline. So I certainly can't be weeding through the comments to ensure compliance with Elections Canada's guidelines (which may I emphasize again I strongly support). Neither does it seem reasonable to just shut down the whole site on the off-chance someone might spill the beans.
We will need, then, to maintain a voluntary blackout until all the polls have closed, across the country. It shouldn't be too long: staggered voting hours mean the polls close in most parts of the country at the same time -- 9:30 EST. The exceptions are Newfoundland (7:00 pm EST), Atlantic Canada (7:30 pm EST) and British Columbia (10:00 pm EST -- thanks to DM for the correct times.) Three hours, all told.
Mind you, while we're waiting for the polls to close, there doesn't seem any harm in passing the time speculating on the results of some future election, or perhaps warming up for the real thing by pretending to report the results from some election in a foreign or imaginary land, quite unlike our own, with completely different parties and completely different electoral districts.
But as for the results of this election: mum's the word.
UPDATE: "The early pages of Anne of Green Gables indicate that three quarters of the roads in PEI are red." Really? I'd no idea. And me, an avid reader of the Anne books. UPPERDATE: Old jokes are good ways of passing the time, too:
So this old chap from Newfoundland shows up at the Pearly gates, on a moose, and says to St.John's angel, "Any mummers 'loud in? I bin riding all day, and b'y, if my seat ain't blue!"
1/23/2006
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