What a weekend

In my mind, there are few better ways to spend a birthday than by watching an election, let alone two! The only thing that would have increased the excitement level would have been a big tennis match (though my roommate thinks it would have caused a seizure).

First the Liberals. That was a really exciting race, it was fun watching people slowly drop off the ballot and then throw their support behind the other candidates. Nothing made my day more than when Bob Rae finally droppd off the ballot. I didn't know too much about Stephane Dion, but after watching him a little bit, he's an interesting choice. He comes off and a goofy Quebecker, but he definitely is far from bumbling. Should be interesting. My favourite quote of the day, from one of the talking heads on a CBC panel; "There three very happy people today, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe."

Here in Alberta, the race to replace Ralph has been going on nearly as long as the latest Liberal race-- actually for some candidates it's been going on longer (cough cough, Jim Dinning). I'm much more familiar with the players in this race, because I've been covering the race for several months and have met/spoken to many of the candidates. In this case I was happy to see Morton off the ballot, in my first meeting with him, there was something I wasn't a fan of, and that list got longer and longer as the race went on. I found Dinning smart, and a bit odd and wouldn't have been the worst thing imaginable. Premier Elect Ed Stelmach had the respect of his coleagues (all of whom refer to him a Eddie) and used the Morton-Dinning rivarly to his benefit. It will be interesting to see where this takes the party, and I can only hope that someone puts Mark Norris back in the legislature and that he sticks around for the next leadership race.

As for my actual birthday, it was good, it involved, bowling, cake, a blender, boooze, and even some flowers-- what more could a girl want?