Canada's election countdown begins

Along with Americans, Canadians will be going to the polls this fall too, on October 14th. This will be third time in four years that our neighbors to the north have gotten the chance to vote their parliamentary representatives--and thus, their Prime Minister--into or out of office.

The current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, a Conservative, pledged at the last election in 2006 to revisit the issue of same-sex marriage, which was enacted into law nationwide by the previous government; but when a motion to reopen debate on the subject failed in Parliament in December, 2006, by a vote of 175 to 123, Harper indicated that he would not pursue the matter further.

During the last eight long years of the Republican regime in the States, I've sometimes thought wistfully of the fact that under a Westminster system like Canada's, an unpopular government can be booted out at any time, theoretically, without having to wait for a fixed election year. Though of course I know the reality is that a government in power usually calls for a new election at a time that is most likely to benefit the ruling party, natch. In Britain, remember, Thatcher, and later Blair, stayed in office for a decade or more.

I'm not up on the fine points of Canadian politics; it will be interesting to see whether the result of their election mirrors the outcome of ours, whether to the right or to the left. But here's a disturbing bit of news: the ruling Conservative party has already begun airing political ads during hours reserved for children's programming.

Is nothing sacred anymore? Not even Sponge Bob Square Pants? I ask you.