And so the Canadian campaigns have begun in earnest. Good times, but I doubt that they’ll be exciting enough to take all of the focus off of the US political shitshow. Mind you, any reprieve at this point would be welcome. I find it very interesting that yesterday was the first full day of campaigning by Harper, Layton, Dion, Duceppe & May and yet I have been seeing Harper commercials on TV for the last two weeks. A strange fact considering that the next election was not suppose to go off until October of 2009. I guess I’m surprised that none of the other party leaders are crying “foul!”

I only managed to catch a little of the first day of campaigning, but the highlights for me were Jack Layton regurgitating portions of Obama’s nomination speech and seeing Harper perform his little dance in the backyard of a rather baffled looking couple from Richmond. He was strategically placed in the center of the triangle that consisted of the awkwardly posed Huang family, the lawn trampling media and a Oscar worthy set design of children’s toys.

It was pure Norman Rockwell, sans the Cocker spaniel.