MONTREAL - Politics is easy, comedy is hard
NEW GLASGOW, N.S. -- Green Leader Elizabeth May decided to stick to politics when comedian Rick Mercer showed up at her election campaign.
Mercer was filming a segment for an election-night show which he hopes will feature all the major party leaders.
He walked into a town-hall meeting where May was speaking and she was tempted to try comedy, but resisted.
"I started to try and answer questions in a way that might be funny," she said. "But I pulled myself together and gave long, boring answers like usual".
She and Mercer also took time for a bike ride.
"My daughter has run home to get the tricycle so I can embarrass myself in front of the entire nation on the Rick Mercer Report," she told Mercer.
Web surfers look south
TORONTO -- Canadian web surfers are looking south for big political waves.
Yahoo Canada's buzz index -- which measures the number of queries entered in its search engine -- finds that American politicians dominated the numbers on Oct. 2, the day of the English-language TV debate among Canadian political leaders.
U.S. vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin was the subject of half the searches -- more than all the other Canadian and American and politicians put together.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was the second most-queried politico, with 11 per cent of the searches.
Other contenders, with the percentage of searches: Senator Joe Biden, eight; Senator Barack Obama, seven; NDP Leader Jack Layton, seven; Green Leader Elizabeth May, six; Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, five; Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe, three; Senator John McCain, two.
Call it a no-candidates debate
SUDBURY, Ont. -- An all-candidates debate turned into a no-candidates debate after a radio station invited only four of the five contenders.
Will Morin of the First Peoples National Party, who has taken part in other campaign debates, wasn't invited to the CIGM debate and when he showed up, hoping to change that decision, he was left standing outside.
The four other candidates stood with him. At one point, when two police cars pulled up and officers tried to escort Morin away from the station, Liberal incumbent Diane Marleau intervened, saying she had invited him.
News director Brian Band said the station had decided to hold a debate with the four main candidates before Morin declared his candidacy.
Marleau, Conservative Gerry Labelle, Glenn Thibeault of the NDP and Green party candidate Gordon Harris stood firm: no Morin, no debate.
"We all are Canadians and we believe in the freedom of speech," said Thibeault.
The debate was cancelled.
Cyber lawn signs
TORONTO -- Apartment and condo owners can't put election campaign signs on their lawns, but they're now able to post virtual signs in cyber space.
Spark Internet Marketing, an online marketing and website design company, is offering a series of downloadable digital lawn signs.
"The digital lawn signs allow voters to show off their candidate in cyberspace with the look of a real election lawn sign," the company says.
Voters can choose their party's sign, download it and post a button to their business or personal website. They can also attach a digital lawn sign to their outgoing email signature.
The Spark website is: www.sparkinternetmarketing.com.
