fear factor

[electricland]

Just for extra spice, here's Hour's take on the two election campaigns.

On January 1, 2005, nearly 325 million people will find themselves subject to the administration of a pair of highly scrutinized middle-aged men.

To make a blanket assessment of their ideologies, Jack Layton roughly equates to Ralph Nader (ethics-rich, poll-poor), Paul Martin to John Kerry (ostensibly moderate, platitudinous) and Stephen Harper to George W. Bush (cynical, retrograde, scary). The question is, how would our "special relationship" play out under these three hypothetical pairings? Of course, there are other potential couplings. For example, wouldn't Layton/Bush be fun? At state dinners, Laura Bush could talk about sterile poetry while Olivia Chow rebukes the President. Or Martin/Nader, where the President interrupts a G8 press conference to openly instruct the Prime Minister on the importance of divesting vast corporate interests in the name of the public good. These are fun to think about, but for now, let's stick to the idea of partisan cohorts.