That's a wrap!

For a variety of reasons, each less believable than the last, I didn't get around to doing an as-it-happens diary. I'll make up for it sometime.

So Dalton McGuinty poked his head out, saw his shadow, and declared four more years of Liberal rule for the province of Ontario. Can't say I'm surprised - I didn't vote Liberal, but I didn't see this election going any other way. What follows are some random thoughts on the election itself, as well as the CTV coverage, in the order they come to me...

-Obviously the CTV team had some problems (pixelating picture and disappearing audio), but I can forgive them for it. With as many people in as many different places as they would have had tonight, something was bound to go wrong - and they'd have more trouble than usual getting in contact with the people who know how to fix it. Besides, I seem to be making a habit of watching DVDs that do the same thing, only worse.
-Poor John Tory. I think his main fault is that he's just a little too naive for public life. It seemed to me like he honestly believed political success was more about having good ideas and knowing the issues, and less about, well, politics. It seemed from his concession speech that he's already learned where he went wrong, and he'll be leading the Conservatives again come the next election. Good.
-Howard Hampton, on the other hand, might be done. No real opinion on this (because I don't know who could replace him), but a new approach might lead the NDP to even greater gains.
-When did CKCO's Frank Lynn turn from "the one guy at the station who you'd actually expect to dig and/or fight for a story" to "the old guy who was probably a good journalist once", and when can we expect Art Baumunk to undergo a similar transformation? And whatever happened to David Imrie?
-I'm still convinced that Gerard Kennedy will one day be Prime Minister.
-On a similar note, the NDP could really have used a better spokesperson. Kennedy and Ernie Eves both managed to spin things to their parties' benefit as well, but Olivia Chow wasn't the least bit subtle about it.
-I'm told that it's still surprisingly easy to defraud electoral officers.
-Does Mike Duffy have a sponsorship deal with Blackberry? On a similar note, can his mere existence be proof that intellect is still more important than looks in some avenues of television?
-My polling station was a church gymnasium. When I went to vote, the priest was there mingling with idle workers. The phrase 'seperation of church and state' popped into my head. I forget where I was going with this.
-It's too bad that MMP didn't come anywhere close to going through, but I can easily blame it on the fact that nobody wanted to publicize it. That takes a way a bit of the pain, and if we can get it on the 2011 ballot, hopefully people will have learned enough by then.
-Speaking of MMP, I started watching CTV's election coverage at about 8:45. First mention of the referendum? 9:48. Second mention? 10:21. Third mention? Nope!
-For the first half-hour or so after polls closed, the CTV ticker showed one 'other party' candidate leading - but none of the hosts mentioned it, and we never saw a graphic for whatever riding that was. Even though I'm sure they never stood a chance, I'd have like to have known what that was about - similar to the last federal election, where CTV showed a Marxist-Leninist candidate leading in Surrey, with six votes.
-On that note, when you have one or two polling stations reporting and the leading candidate has 12 votes, why are the TV people assuming it's indicative of how everythig else will go?
-Those were some really, really good chocolate chip cookies.

I think that's everything I've got. Fun night.

--Ryan