Is it bidirectional?

[dr_kromm]

As I was reading about the upcoming Canadian federal election -- announced on September 7, 2008 and to be held on October 14, 2008 (year included to make a point) -- it hit me that the United States presidential election on November 4 has dominated the news for about a year, even here in Canada. Moreover, many Canadian news services still carry more information about the U.S. election than about the Canadian one, despite the U.S. freak show being half a month more distant and being year-old news. Weird.

I guess my question is this: Does the Canadian election even rate on the radar of the average American? I can name the two tickets in the U.S. election -- Obama/Biden (D) and McCain/Palin (R) -- without hitting Google, but can the average American name the leaders of Canada's major political parties? Can the average American name the parties? I'm just curious.

I'd get into issues except that I know most Canadians aren't even up to speed on the ones here at home . . .

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Sort of tangentially, in my Transhuman Space campaign, based in the independent city-state of Montréal, I had one scenario that involved politically motivated memetic sabotage of a popular musician's career. I needed to come up with the political parties that were contending for power in future Montréal. I ended up deciding that they were the Parti libérale, the Parti d'humanité, and the Parti infosocialiste. It was entertaining because the sabotage was funded by the Parti libérale candidate, who was the incumbent, and exposing it cost her the election—but most of the player characters detested the Parti d'humanité, which their client supported. I've always enjoyed conflicted situations like that. . . .