Stephen Taylor

The scene from Washington D.C.: President Barack Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder has named a prosecutor to investigate alleged CIA abuses of terror detainees. Former Vice President Dick Cheney gives an interview to Fox News regarding this decision and what he calls a political investigation rather than a law enforcement action. “Enhanced Interrogation” as it is euphemistically called by its supporters and “torture” by its detractors, was carried out numerous times during the Bush presidency since 9/11.

For the past week or so, when I’ve had a spare moment in the office, I’ve been working on a mapping project involving Elections Canada data and the Google Earth KML standard.  For anyone that’s worked on a political campaign or in a Member’s office, poll maps are always close by and always useful for plotting strategy for the next election.  Elections Canada provides data for drawing these polls maps, but unfortunately this data is not available in a format or projection readable by Google Earth or Google Maps.

Q: Why is Michael Ignatieff still in Canada?

News that is late-breaking tonight suggests that Liberal MP Dominic Leblanc will drop out of the Liberal leadership race and endorse Michael Ignatieff.  It is rumoured that Leblanc will provide Ignatieff with an additional nine members of the Liberal caucus in what is shaping up to be a backroom leadership election by caucus.  Leblanc’s move over to the Ignatieff camp should be smooth for Leblanc supporters as some senior east-coast Liberal organizers who were initially eyeing Frank McKenna for the top job of that party chose Leblanc instead.  New Brunswicker Steve McKinnon, who would have backed McKenna has charted the waters for martime Liberals to sail over to Ignatieff.

After every election, with no knock-out punch landed, an appeal to vote-rich Ontario made, and the “most negative campaign in history” conducted, commentators finally bemoan the declining numbers reflecting voter turnout. To be sure, the recent American election campaign saw long voter lines and a motivated electorate. Yet, while the our American friends turned out in record numbers, it’s a bit sad to say that their 60% turnout for Obama only bested our worst showing by 1%.