In the most recent Canadian elections, the Liberal Party of Canada, one of the oldest and most dominant political parties in the world, lost badly and fell into irrelevance. That fall, however, may lead the country to adopt more democratic election reforms, and Canada could serve as a case study for how to do it.

The Liberal Party of Canada, the country’s oldest federally registered party, has endorsed a resolution calling for the legalization and regulation of marijuana in Canada. This would be roughly equivalent in the US to the Democratic national convention adopting a non-binding resolution in favor of marijuana legalization.

Talk about a body-blow to all of the Americans — including me and my wife Kate — who flocked to Canada to get married. Stephen Harper’s conservative government has declared all marriages from any countries where there is not marriage equality null-and-void.

The big topline story from the federal election yesterday in Canada is that the Conservatives won a solid majority of seats in parliament. Prime Minister Steven Harper will have extensive power to govern the country as his party desires. The Bloc Québécois was effectively wiped out at the national level. Last night it went from 49 seats in parliament to a mere 4, causing it to lose its official party status. Liberals lost over half their seats, falling from 77 to only 34. The NDP had overwhelmingly its best national showing ever, going from 37 seats to 102, making it the official opposition.

Today is election day in Canada, so to all our Canadian readers: go vote! To our non-Canadian readers, today’s election could be a truly historic event worth keeping an eye on.

With less than a week until the the federal elections in Canada, the left wing New Democratic Party is experiencing an almost unprecedented 11-point surge in the polls.

Happy End of The Canuckistan Olympics, everyone! And — you may now go back to loving San Francisco best of all the West Coast cities.

Best. Freudian Slip. Ever.

The White House says they didn’t know about the donation to the RNC’s McCain Victory Committee from Robert Toussie, the father of the man with the rescinded pardon. Unfortunately, in the picture which has since come to light of the two shaking hands, Bush is thanking him for the check.

In a move which surprised even some inside observers, the Governor-General of Canada, the nominal head of state, agreed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s request to suspend Parliament until 27th of January to allow his minority government to avoid a vote of no confidence. The announcement, which came after this morning after a two hour personal meeting with the Governor General.