Fagstein » liveblogging

The Leaders’ debate: By-the-minute boredom

Fagstein — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:04:01 +0000

Not having anything better to do, might as well liveblog the leaders' debate tonight. Will there be enough snide sarcastic comments about the leaders and TV networks to sustain a whole post? We'll see.

Other liveblogs:

19:00: LCN and RDI go live an hour ahead of the debate with boring analysis. LCN starts off with John Parisella, who is much better in French than I thought. It also features a CNN-style countdown to the debate. RDI, meanwhile, brings in their politician-hack-has-beens "Club des ex" for insight.

19:05: Oh wait, RDI's coutdown is up, using some strange font which makes it unreadable (except in HD?). Among their important updates: Pauline Marois inspected the podium this afternoon, Mario Dumont has his hands in his pockets, and the leaders will be taking a group photo shortly.

19:07: RadCan's Marc André Masson is at a bar in the Saguenay, assuming that people who watch political debates in bars form a representative sample of the electorate.

19:10: "L'analyse de nos ex" - would you want your ex analyzing you on TV?

19:12: Uncontent with their own analyses, LCN is asking its viewers to weigh in online.

19:13: What else is on? TVA has Occupation Double, CTV and Global have their entertainment gossip shows. CNN has Lou Dobbs. There's never anything good on between 7 and 8.

19:15: RDI is asking an ADQ hack about how Mario Dumont will do tonight. Shockingly, the strategy will involve "talking directly to Quebecers" and getting away from those partisan politics everyone dislikes, but also talking to his opponents to their face and calling them on their policies.

19:18: LCN has also moved to asking politicians about politics, asking a PQ hack about Charest. Are they going through some playbook about how to fill time with nothing?

19:20: CPAC isn't covering this yet, neither is the National Assembly channel.

19:21: LCN has the scoop: Jean Charest is late to his group photo! What does this mean for the election campaign? How will voters react to this stunning development?

19:22: LCN interrupts its partisan hack to show live video of the group photo. Everyone's wearing black today (Charest's ill-fitting suit last time was black, maybe they think it's lucky?). Mario Dumont improvises a three-way handshake.

19:24: Analysis of Marois's neckwear, or lack thereof.

19:25: First comparison to the Biden/Palin debate. Don't get our hopes up, RDI.

19:33: Jean Lapierre is doing analysis from inside the Quebecor election bus.

19:34: Pauline Marois was apparently a bit nervous, but confident during the photo op handshake.

19:36: RadCan's Vincent Grou is using a giant touch screen to talk about Québec solidaire's response to the debate. It's no magic map, but it is big.

19:39: Macleans is also running a liveblog tonight.

19:43: Richard Martineau is live from a boardroon somewhere. Whoever's handling his audio should be fired.

19:54: Can we start this thing already?

19:56: These LCN headsets are really bulky. What is this, 1990?

19:57: "There are two minutes left until the debate, which means there are only two minutes left until the debate starts"

19:59: Stéphane's right. That's a really sleek-looking table.

20:00: And we're off! TVA, Télé-Québec, RadCan, RDI and LCN carrying it live. No anglo stations doing the same (including Montreal-based CBC, CTV and Global, because local programming is for wussies). And wasn't the National Assembly channel supposed to have this too? And where's CPAC? CTV Newsnet? NewsWorld? Isn't this important?

20:03: Pauline, you're leaning too far forward. Posture! Ooh, she's promising to present a great plan.

20:05: Opening statements were short and infomercial-esque. Actually, that doesn't sound like such a bad thing. If political debates were more like competing infomercials, they might be more entertaining.

20:06: I'm missing House for this. It's better be good.

20:11: RDI's running a news ticker, in case you can't watch a debate without being ADD about it. RadCan and Télé-Québec are running the debate without graphics (besides their network bugs).

20:13: 10 minutes to retire a doctor, 10 years to train a new one, Charest says. Everyone take a drink!

20:19: Charest and Marois are arguing over who screwed up health care more. Dumont, meanwhile, hasn't governed, so he can live in a fantasyland where "private" health care means "non-profit community-based cooperatives run by vegan hippies"

20:24: Marois and Charest are starting to sound like a married couple at a divorce hearing.

20:25: Charest repeats his "10 minutes to retire a doctor" line, for those who might have missed it all of 12 minutes ago. Time for another drink!

20:30: Someone's being touchy with the sound levels. Just tape them down, everyone's going to talk over each other anyway.

20:35: Mr. Charest, you have 45 seconds. Because people can easily formulate explanations of government policy in 45 seconds without descending into meaningless soundbites.

20:36: Galen Weston in a commercial on TQS reminds me that we should be thankful we don't have non-francophones in this debate.

20:39: Spoiler alert: House is being taken hostage!

20:43: The Weather Network has a report on winter tires.

20:44: Charest's tie was a bad choice. It's giving that striped-tie-blurry effect on my TV.

20:46: Marois has a nice jacket. But is she wearing anything underneath it? (Oh good God why did I put that image in my head?)

20:52: Now all four of them are talking at the same time.

20:56: These people are talking over each other about pension fund management? Seriously?

21:01: Things we're missing this hour:

TQS: Translated version of Moment of Truth
CBC: The Tudors
CTV: Dancing with the Stars
Global: NCIS
NBC: The Biggest Loser

I guess this really is the most entertaining thing on right now.

21:05: The leaders are given 45 seconds to answer a question that took more than that to ask.

21:07: Marois rolls her 'r's really hard. I hope she has enough water to reload.

21:09: Marois takes credit for CPEs helping families and ... nevermind, Charest just made my point for me. Marois stepped right into that hypocrisy.

21:14: Charest breaks the rules to point out the hypocrisy again. We heard you the first time, Jean.

21:19: Dumont almost got through his kids-want-to-wear-school-colours-not-gang-colours line. Do we drink?

21:21: Marois: "Si on était souverain..." Drink!

21:30: Le Québec de demain. Here's the fun part. First question is about how Quebec's fraction of the Canadian pie (population-wise) is getting smaller. Marois's answer, is of course, to give up and separate. Dumont says we'll reopen the constitution after the economic crisis is over (and once the kids are grown up, and when we get around to it...). Charest has no real answer, saying that Dumont and Marois are tied to the federal parties. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this question about Quebec's dwindling population?

21:34: Dumont is saying - with a straight face - that the PQ's position on sovereignty is vague.

21:37: Dumont's talking contraband cigarettes. He points out that Health Canada doesn't inspect them, and so we don't know what they contain. This is an outrage. We need our kids to be smoking healthy cigarettes.

21:48: I really have nothing to add here. I lost interest 10 minutes ago. What's tonight's West Wing rerun about?

21:50: Did Dumont just check Marois out? What is he looking at down there?

21:51: Question: How will you be cool like Barack Obama?

21:52: Dumont is reassuring us (again) that every child has a talent. Really? Is there not a single child in the province that's completely useless?

21:53: Marois's "Quebec dream" is, of course, a strengthened Bill 101. That's true. So many young kids in Quebec yearn for a future in which there is more government regulation of language. Yes we can!

21:55: Dumont seems confused about whether the PQ is for sovereignty or not.

21:57: Closing statements. Back to infomercial time!

21:58: Charest, try to look more frustrated at having to take part in this exercise. ("Tempête économique!" Drink!)

22:00: Wow, he just made it under the wire there. Only RDI jumps right into post-debate analysis. Everyone else switched back to regular programming at 10 on the dot.

22:02: LCN just went dead. Oops. Now it's back.

22:03: TVA already has a package together. Not bad.

22:05: If you were watching the anglo newscasts, you'd have no idea there was a leaders' debate tonight. Then again, you'd get the same idea watching TQS.

22:08: Everyone's asking who won. (The spinning hasn't started yet.) I think I won.

22:09: Jean Lapierre says he got over 1,000 emails from TVA viewers. I'm betting half of them want to help him make his penis bigger.

22:13: The candidates themselves will have self-spinning news conferences. TVA has gone on to more important news: It snowed today.

22:24: Did I miss anything? I was watching Prenez Garde aux Chiens.

22:26: Dumont's talking anglo. But no anglo network is covering this, so I have to listen to the simultaneous translation and then re-translate it back to anglo in my head.

22:27: CPAC's running the debate tape-delayed. Because it was so exciting the first time, you have to see it again!

22:29: Charest says if you didn't like the debate, blame the consortium that planned it. Not his fault they acted like children.

22:47: That's it. Now we're getting into the hockey metaphors. That's three and a half hours of my life I'm not getting back. Good night.

Liveblogging the leaders’ debate

Fagstein — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:48:23 +0000

Take your pick, everyone's doing it:

The Gazette's Don Macpherson
La Presse's Patrick Lagacé
Journal de Montréal's Marco Fortier (forum only, no liveblogging)
The National Post (using crazy Flash technology)
The Star's Linda Diebel
Maclean's
Ottawa Citizen's Laura Drake

The debate itself is an unintelligible shouting match, so I don't think there's much analysis to get out of it.

But feel free to analyze the liveblogs themselves below. Which is funniest? Most astute? Quickest?

UPDATE: My initial reactions: most of these liveblogs sound more like transcripts. Are these for people who can't access TV? They seem to think that knee-jerk snark can replace rapid analysis. As the king of knee-jerk snark, I wonder why I'm not being paid to liveblog this.

My winner is the National Post, which has special software which works properly, has comments from a team of writers instead of one personality, and includes (moderated) comments from visitors with the liveblog comments. Losers include Le Devoir and Canoe, which didn't have liveblogging at all.

UPDATE 2: Paul Wells has a franco blogger roundup of debate analysis.

UPDATE 3: Regan Ray at J-Source has a taste of the liveblogging action.

Gazette live-blogging Impact game

Fagstein — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:24:55 +0000

The Gazette is trying something new tonight, live-blogging the Impact vs. Toronto FC game at Saputo Stadium BMO Field in Toronto. The copy is a bit dirty (note to marketing dept.: "Pat Hickey RAW"), but at least you get the news of what's going on.

La Presse is doing similarly with blogger Pascal Milano, as is Radio-Canada, with at least a half-time report from each.

Unless I've missed something, Le Devoir, Quebecor's Canoe portal, CTV Sports and even the sports networks (TSN.ca, RDS.ca, Sportsnet.ca) have nothing on how this game is going.

The Impact is the unpopular little brother of the Alouettes and Canadiens, and the media tends to half-ass coverage of the team (in most cases, only covering home games so they don't have to spring for airfare). Since this is a non-league game, it's not on TV. RDS and TSN have Rogers Cup tennis, and CBC/Radio-Canada have regular non-sports programming. Fortunately, though, CBCsports.ca has a free live broadcast of the game online.

UPDATE: 1-1 draw gives a victory in the CONCACAF Canadian championships to the Montreal Impact. SUCK IT, TORONTO!

Rad-Can and Milano win the race for breaking news, having the result up within minutes (seconds?) of the game ending.

CBC Television is also replaying the game at midnight.

The right way and wrong way to blog the Emmys

Fagstein — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:30:24 +0000

There's nothing better on tonight (except re-runs of Family Guy/American Dad on Global, Anchorman on ABC, the NFL's New England Patriots on NBC/TSN, and the Weather Network's long-term forecasts), so I'm watching the Emmys.

Of course, it's not enough to be watching the Emmys, you have to read someone liveblogging it too. Something to keep you entertained during Ray Romano's monologue. (It's clear why some of the awards were previously presented, because they needed more time for long, unfunny monologues and skits.)

There's a few options for Emmy liveblogging, but I'll point to two with opposite mentalities:

FOX has five people you've never heard of sitting in the audience with blackberries in their hands, contributing to a blog on its website. The blackberries apparently prevent them from using punctuation, capital letters, or from spelling anyone's name right. Here's a sampling of some of the comments:

"ray remono is a comedic genious he had the audience in tears"
"I'm quick like a squirrell."
"whod of thought eva l could get any hotter"
"hahaha yay justin!"
"queeny is in the house"

Most of the other posts have about the same level of insight and grammar.

On the other side of the spectrum, The Gazette's Basem Boshra is sitting in front of a TV liveblogging the Emmys for the Inside the Box blog. A sampling:

8:47: Biggest upset of the night so far as Late Night with Conan O'Brien snags the writing in a variety, comedy or music series trophy over heavyweights such as the Daily Show, Colbert Report and Late Show with David Letterman. (Although the winner for best goofy video to accompany the list of nominees - always one of the high points of any Emmy broadcast - goes to the team from Bill Maher, for their priceless send-up of the Sen. Larry Craig mess,)
8:59 p.m.: A grizzled-as-ever Robert Duvall spends a little too long extolling the virtues of the western after winning the award for best actor in a minseries or movie for Broken Trail, presented to him by Heroes' Ali Larter and 24's Kiefer Sutherland, the latter who was in full-on Sutherland-gravitas mode.

It's not like the latter tells me much I couldn't tell from simply watching the show. But at least it doesn't treat me like an idiot.

UPDATE: From Sunday's Gazette:

Sacrilege! How could they get the name of his show wrong?

The Dawson shooting: As it happened

Fagstein — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:00:23 +0000

(I don't quite get this "as it happened" re-run news coverage fad going on. CNN did it last year with its 9/11 coverage, replaying tapes of that morning in real-time. MSNBC did the same this year. But if it works for them, I might as well dredge up something from my archives.)

One year ago today, a tall gunman went into Dawson College dressed in black clothing and a black trenchcoat at about 12:41pm, and fired an automatic weapon at random, shooting students. Anastasia DeSouza, 18, died on the scene, and 19 other people were injured, many seriously. They spent between a few hours and a few weeks in hospital. The gunman, Kimveer Gill, was shot in the arm and then turned one of his guns on himself.

I was at home that day on a day off from work. I first heard about the shooting a few minutes after it happened, when it was mentioned in passing at the end of CTV News at noon. What follows are my observations of news coverage of the incident as it happened that day. (The links are a year old, so some of them may not work anymore)

So we're on CNN again. Details are still coming in, but CTV has interrupted regular programming to talk about what some student told her friend she said to someone else who saw someone say something to her friend on a cellphone about something he saw someone see with his own eyes, etc.French CBC reports 4 dead, 16 injured. ("French CBC"? Silly Toronto terms.)

CFCF's Geneviève Beauchemin is on the scene, talking to CNN. Amazingly enough, CNN's anchor correctly pronounced her name. Good for you.

On the other hand: "I've just been handed a note by one of our producers, who is Canadian, reminding us about the so-called Montreal Massacre..." sigh. I'm sure Fabrikant will come up soon, too. (UPDATE: and CTV wins this one at 2:59 p.m.)

MORE UPDATES: Here's what the networks are showing:
TVA: Non-stop Dawson coverage
TQS: Non-stop Dawson coverage
CBC: Non-stop Dawson coverage
CTV: Non-stop Dawson coverage
LCN: Non-stop Dawson coverage
CNN: Non-stop Dawson coverage
RDI: Non-stop Dawson coverage
CBC Newsworld: Non-stop Dawson coverage
CTV Newsnet: Non-stop Dawson coverage
Global: House & Garden: Transforming an ordinary garden into a personal oasis

Sigh. Though to be fair, Radio-Canada's CBFT hasn't interrupted regular programming either.

3:13pm: Oh TVA. I'm sure all your viewers are fascinated by the historical significance of the Dawson building. And that map you're using was stolen from the STM.

3:19pm: Canada.com has their graphics department on the case. They have a page on previous school shootings, which of course makes a factual error on the Fabrikant case (it was five shot, not four), and their area map is in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. East and West are two different things, which probably hasn't occurred to the people running things out of Winnipeg.

3:37pm: CNN reports the gunman "could have been a student". Excellent reporting there. Also was wearing military fatigues... no, wait, he was all in black... no, wait, he was wearing a trenchcoat JUST LIKE AT COLUMBINE! Perfect! Let's go with that one.

3:43pm: Canada.com is inviting people to share their stories.

3:46pm: STOP THE PRESSES! Whitney Houston files for divorce!. Fortunately the TV coverage hasn't bitten this apple yet.

3:53pm: Note to CNN's Carol Lin: Great job asking a witness to describe how he felt when he watched fellow student being shot, but please don't tell him how he was feeling and cut him off at every second sentence. This is live news, you're trying to fill time anyway. Why not just let the man speak?

3:57pm: CBC's Amanda Pfeffer ("The Pfeff") on CNN, ~~saying hi to her mom~~ updating on the situation.

4:00pm: CNN's Wolf Blitzer starts the Situation Room, skirting the fact that CNN doesn't have a Montreal bureau. So politics it is.

4:01pm: Pfeff goes back to her real job at CBC. Talking about employees at Zellers across the street cowering in the back. Those cowards. Not as brave as our Pfeff, standing in the middle of the wet street. I guess that means it's raining (looking out window) yep.

4:22pm: Mits Takahashi wants students who are too busy gawking at her and haven't told parents they're ok to call them please. CFCF now has a student in studio.

4:26pm: Stephane Giroux reporting from Concordia's Hall Building, where classes have not been cancelled. They want Dawsonites to converge there.

4:30pm: TVA mentions "M16". Their blog reporter Dominic Arpin (with unfortunate initials "DOA" in the email address he's asking people to send photos of dead bodies to) talking about how the Dawson website is inaccessible due to increased load.

5:00pm: CBC: "We now pass on our breaking news coverage to Calgary." Because, you know, Calgary is the best place to coordinate coverage of a shooting in Montreal.

5:03pm: Canal VOX is talking about suicide and kids, unrelated to the craziness. Global is showing the Young and the Restless. Oh wait... Amanda Jelowicki is on the scene finally.

5:05pm: Global's back to Young and the Restless after a three-minute report, as Radio-Canada CBFT finally interrupts regular programming.

5:17pm: Someone has created a prayer/grief banner and uploaded it to Flickr, just in case you're incapable of feeling emotion without a small banner appearing on your blog.

5:23pm: Canada.com has a new Dawson shooting graphic. I hope they got permission from the woman pictured there. Their area map is still wrong, two hours after I emailed them about it.

5:31pm: Canada.com's page is asking people to submit feedback... to the Ottawa Citizen - witness@thecitizen.canwest.com. Because, you know, that's the closest CanWest paper to Montreal. Oh wait...

5:41pm: Metro's not stopping at Atwater. Guess I'm not going to Future Shop today as planned.

5:45pm: CNN has a better map graphic (Though it's "de Maisonneuve Blvd.", not street). CBC has a Plant (student newspaper) staffer on the air. CTV has the academic dean.

6:00pm: Mits and Brian Britt are nationwide on CTV Newsnet. At least someone got the idea that news about a Montreal shooting should come out of Montreal.

6:06pm: CBC: "No one ever mentioned a second gunman." No one except the media, over and over again.

6:16pm: CFCF has Dawson student and reporter-wannabe Michel Boyer in studio, again. Dude, you're being interviewed for the news, not a job. Mits is consoling him. Looks creepily Mrs. Robinsonish.

6:26pm: TQS is back to regular programming.

6:29pm: Michel Boyer's still on, faking concern.

6:30pm: NBC Nightly News is leading with Dawson (and Pfeff!), while ABC's World News has a special report on seatbelts. SEATBELTS? Also, news outlets outside Quebec don't seem to get how CEGEPs work.

6:37pm: School shooting isn't enough for Global to pre-empt House and Home. Also, I think I blinked and missed ABC's coverage. CNN is talking about politics and NBC has moved on after a respectable 5 minutes on the subject.

6:53pm: More Michel Boyer! Does CFCF have nothing better to put on the air? Or does Mits just really wanna bone this guy? Is he the son of one of the producers or something? CFCF also has cellphone video of shortly after the shooting. It's too blurry, but is the first from inside the building.

6:56pm: Concordia is touting the help it's offering to the media, which is lapping it all up.

6:57pm: First words coming in of a second fatality, just as everyone goes off the air with news.

7:04pm: Global's Jamie Orchard almost lost her composure on air. They pushed Entertainment Tonight back by almost five minutes to give last-minute updates. Everyone's back to regular programming now. CBS has their evening newscast, leading with Dawson.

7:24pm: One of the Gazette's reporter's daughters was there, and her mother writes about it while home sick with the flu. (Wow, those CEGEP kids are getting younger and younger, aren't they?)

7:27pm: Dawson finally updates their website, saying they'll be closed till Monday.

7:29pm: One blog jokingly makes a link to the recent anonymous blog Montreal People I Hate (WARNING: racist, vulgar language).

7:32pm: Daily Telegraph's front page. Only thing is it's not a "university killing spree", because it's not a university.

7:44pm: The kid who took a cellphone video from inside the building is getting it aired on the networks. One pointed comment on Flickr is that this will encourage other idiots to take photos or video in dangerous situations, risking their lives for 15 seconds of fame.

7:53pm: CTV has former Dawson student Ian Lagace: "It wasn't like this when I was there".

7:58pm: FARK.com is on it, with its usual insightful commentary.

8:00pm: Charest giving a press conference. Says we can discuss gun control later. Education minister will assign someone to ... uhh ... deal with this, in government-speak. "Help the college". Apparently it's an important college. Good to hear. Because, you know, if this wasn't an important college we wouldn't be reporting on it.

8:19pm: I'm not quite sure how an American flag at half-mast is appropriate, but it's nice to know people are thinking of what's going on here.

8:24pm: Dateline's showing To Catch a Predator. Strangely, Montreal police didn't call them up the moment this all broke.

8:29pm: CTV Newsnet: "OMG WE WERE ON CNN! WE 0WNZ j00!!! ALL UR BASE R BELONG 2 US!"

8:36pm: Montreal's hate blogger confirms it wasn't him.

8:40pm: Another first-hand account at MetBlogs.

8:42pm: Note to CTV: Dawson is NOT a "prep school".

8:44pm: Genevieve Beauchemin interviewing Fehr Marouf (laid-back brother of Laith and Chadi). "He looks more like a Nazi/racist/skinhead more than anything else." Worried about anti-Arab sentiment in response, despite the minor fact that the suspect is not Arab.

8:50pm: CTV's Don Matheson: I don't think anyone is going to interpret this as an act of terrorism. Of course, all the news media are mentioning the word in their coverage. Google doesn't believe it, at least.

9:03pm: An unnamed journalist chips in on the media coverage.

9:13pm: Michel Boyer is back! Peter Mansbridge is on the scene at Atwater and Ste. Catherine, interviewing him and a punk chick in the rain. He's so heroic, spending his ENTIRE DAY doing media interviews.

9:17pm: VANDALISM!.

9:18pm: Montreal police press conference on RDI.

9:24pm: The SQ will be taking control over the investigation. It's standard practice for a police-involved shooting for another force to handle the investigation.

9:35pm: Apparently police tried to gain the attention of the gunman in order to stop him firing indiscriminately on students. It worked, causing him to fire on the police officers instead. That's balls of steel, folks.

9:45pm: Student coverage at The Link

10:07pm: Police have located the car he used and his apartment, still no clue about motive.

10:09pm: Mansbridge: "You didn't really need to talk to students to know their reaction to all this, but a lot of students wanted to talk about what happened." Yeah. Arielle Reid, a former Concordia student who is now a Dawson student (don't ask), brings out the tears.

10:10pm: CBC's Susan Bonner: "A cosmopolitain campus, the largest (CEGEP) in Quebec, crammed with multicultural students." Crammed? Multicultural?

10:12pm: For those who can't get enough Michel Boyer, The National is running him "painting a picture" of the scene now again with Mansbridge and fellow student Lindsay Gauthier.

10:20pm: CBC answers the burning question: What do students in Vancouver think of all this?

10:33pm: More bad Flickr tributes.

11:12pm: Thank goodness for CBC's third repeat of the National, because it gives us still more Michel Boyer!

11:25pm: Another first-person perspective. Also coverage from The McGill Tribune, as the Daily is sleeping on the job.

11:40pm: Calls for more gun control, though some don't see it so black and white.

11:41pm: Another Michel Boyer fan.

11:55pm: Canada.com has Gazette coverage up, including a timeline of events, which gives the name of the female victim as Anastasia DeSouza, 18. Telus reports traffic spiked to 11 times normal just after the shooting. Bill Brownstein looks at media coverage internationally (in mentioning networks that cut from regular programming, of course, he leaves out mention of Global which kept soap operas and gardening shows).

12:07am: And CanWest finally fixed their area map. There's also a video sound-off, apparently an all-Peterborough edition.

12:15am: Today was supposed to be the Gazette's big paper with news of the new valuation roll coming out. But looks like that's going to be pushed back into the paper. I wonder if it will even have mention on A1, or if that's going to be kept for shooting stuff.

12:19am: The Gazette pulled out all the stops. Nine reporters on this one story alone.

1:08am: Watching recorded Lloyd Robertson on CTV Newsnet, explaining what CEGEPs are, and even translating the acronym.

1:15am: The Globe, which I just realized I hadn't looked at all day, has a single,
disappointing article on the subject, and links to CP photos and AP video.

1:22am: An expletive-laden comment about our good friend Michel Boyer, from someone who apparently knows of him.

1:25am: One of many tirades against the media. Though props went to the LCN's helicopter coverage.

1:35am: Time for bed. I'm working in 8 hours.

The exciting results, live! (as soon as I see them on TV)

Fagstein — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:24:15 +0000

Tonight's election liveblog, in a nutshell:

Liberals win, ADQ becomes the official opposition after posting huge gains in Quebec City, the Laurentians and the Eastern townships.
Strong second-place showings in two ridings by Québec solidaire and three by the Greens, all on the island of Montreal.
The CBC blows a big election call (Jean Charest's riding) and has to retract itself with a pathetic excuse

8:21pm: An early Green lead! In Laviolette. So far, Lib: 24, PQ: 13, ADQ: 7, GRN: 1. No seats called yet.

8:30pm: Elected: LIB in D'Arcy McGee and Saint-Laurent, PQ in Iles-de-la-Madeleine. No surprises there.

8:33pm: CTV (which is being carried nationally on NewsNet) has lots of awkward pauses as they're trying to manage things on the fly.

8:36pm: As if it wasn't obvious that my parents' votes don't count, fresh...woman Yolande James (LIB) is elected in Nelligan

8:37pm: Mario Dumont elected in Rivière-du-Loup.

8:39pm: CTV: In four bellweather ridings with results so far, three have the ADQ leading.

8:40pm: So much for that. Greens drop to a distant fourth in Laviolette.

8:44pm: ADQ is in second place in the count so far, with 47-45-29-1. Québec solidaire has just taken a lead.

8:46pm: ADQ now first 45-42-35-1 to Libs, PQ, QS. Most likely due to a disproportionte number of Quebec City and small ridings compared to the Montreal area.

8:46pm: CTV predicts minority government. Just not sure who will lead it. They give the Liberals an 81% chance. New projections: LIB 41-56, PQ 34-51, ADQ 27-41.

8:48pm: André Boisclair wins Pointe-aux-Trembles for the PQ. Charest is leading but not yet elected.

8:50pm: Dennis Trudeau is doing analysis for CTV. Looks like a slap in the face to his former boss for me.

8:56pm: Amateurs. Canoe's election site is crashing, so I'm switching to the very experienced CBC.ca for riding-by-riding results.

8:57pm: Liberal headquarters shocked (SHOCKED!) that they're not going to lead a minority government.

8:59pm: CTV NewsNet cut their local feed off mid-sentence so Craig Oliver and Rosemary Thompson can rattle off about nothing and the network can go back to regular programming.

9:01pm: With 124/125 ridings starting to report, the ADQ are still leading, 46-44-35-0-0. CTV has swapped the second-place finishers, giving the ADQ average seat total above the PQ average.

9:02pm: Jean Charest trailing in Sherbrooke with 10% reporting. Nobody is panicking yet.

9:04pm: Liberal Russell Copeman will be my MNA in NDG. They probably haven't even looked at my ballot yet.

9:05pm: Popular vote is basically 30/30/30.

9:21pm: François Legault is very tight in Rousseau.

9:39pm: CTV is projecting that the ADQ will beat the PQ in seat count. "ADQ landslide" writes my source in the counting office. Leading LIB 46, ADQ 43, PQ 36.

9:44pm: Elsie Lefebvre (PQ) has lost Laurier-Dorion to the Liberals.

9:53pm: Strong showing by the no-hope parties. Québec solidaire is second in Gouin and Mercier, the Greens second in NDG.

9:59pm: Three Liberal cabinet ministers are now looking for jobs. Anyone have a use for high-priced lawyers?

10:00pm: Projecting a Liberal minority government, with the ADQ as the official opposition.

10:02pm: Parizeau's wife, Lisette Lapointe, has taken the lead for the PQ in Cremazie.

10:04pm: Charest is now badly trailing the PQ in Sherbrooke, 35-32%, with over half the polls reporting.

10:08pm: DemocraticSPACE's predictions are looking kind of silly about now.

10:13pm: Worst PQ showing in popular vote since 1970.

10:15pm: PQ's Robin Philpot, who denied the Rwandan genocide took place, has been defeated in Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne.

10:22pm: It's official. Jean Charest has lost his seat in Sherbrooke to the PQ.

10:27pm: PQ take Abitibi-Est from Liberal minister Pierre Corbeil.

10:29pm: The lead in Mégantic-Compton is only six votes.

10:31pm: For those curious, "octuple" is the word for "multiply by eight", to describe the change in the ADQ seat count.

10:35pm: Lisette Lapointe takes Crémazie. Six ridings left in play.

10:45pm: Some are recalling their projections as the lead narrows in Jean Charest's Sherbrooke riding. CBC/RadCan is still calling it for the PQ.

10:52pm: Québec solidaire is second in Gouin and Mercier, the Greens second in NDG and D'Arcy McGee and third in Jacques-Cartier.

10:56pm: One of only three ridings still in play: Johnson, with ADQ leading.

11:01pm: André Boisclair is about to give the mother of all concession speeches. Is that an Iranian flag behind him?

11:04pm: Boisclair: "Thank you for being here." Was he worried they were going to leave in disgust?

11:07pm: Anyone still awake? Come on, André! Blame the ethnics or something. Announce your resignation. Proposition Dumont. Anything!

11:10pm: ADQ's Pierre Harvey finishes an embarrassing fifth in Outremont, behind both the Greens and Québec solidaire.

11:14pm: Charest is trailing by only 0.35% of the vote in Sherbrooke. 29 polls left to come in.

11:21pm: CBC has its final numbers: 46 LIB, 42 ADQ, 37 PQ. Since their "elected" candidate in Sherbrooke is now losing to Jean Charest, take that with a grain of salt.

11:26pm: CBC has finally withdrawn its projection in Sherbrooke, as other networks project him elected. 187/212 polls reporting. Fortunately, I have the screenshot:

11:29pm: Canoe's final numbers: 47 LIB, 42 ADQ, 36 PQ, with Charest winning Sherbrooke.

11:30pm: Mario Dumont starts speaking, with a crazy-cheering crowd and the kind of shit-eating grin reserved for nerds who score with the head cheerleader.

11:32pm: CBC has hastily rewritten its "Charest lost his riding" piece. They're still working on the main results piece.

11:34pm: Dumont's speaking like he did at the debate: louder, more passionate, more forceful, more articulate and just plain better than André Boisclair.

11:40pm: Dumont promises to babysit the Liberals "for the people of Quebec". Go ahead, but don't spend the entire night on the phone, and don't bring any friends over, ok?

11:44pm: Dumont promises a "next step" in the next election. Since he's the official opposition leader now, it will become Liberal vs ADQ instead of Liberal vs PQ for the first time in decades.

11:46pm: CBC's Michel Godbout: "The numbers were a little mixed-up there before." They blame uncounted advance ballots for their major foulup calling Charest's seat for his opponent. Does that sound like a plausible excuse for such an error?

11:49pm: In popular vote percentage, it's the worst Liberal showing in history. And they won. Insane!

11:59pm: Louis-Hébert, which was called for the ADQ, is now Liberal-leading.

12:02am: Charest's face is purple as he walks in to make his speech.

12:10am: Charest calls this a "severe" punishment to his party from the voters. Relax, man, you still won. Also, I guess "militants" doesn't mean the same thing in French as it does in English, since all the party leaders are using the word.

12:11am: CTV didn't expect to have to pre-empt the Daily Show for election coverage. Fortunately I can just catch it on the Comedy Network at 1:30.

12:13am: Charest indirectly takes a jab at the media for calling his race wrong, thanking his supporters for never giving up on him, even when the networks did.

12:20am: L. Ian MacDonald on CTV, about the "other network" that blew the Charest call: "I would not want to be in that story meeting tomorrow morning." They don't mention the network, but we know who it is.

12:22am: Louis-Hébert, the only riding left to call, is still Liberal-leading with nine polls left to report.

12:23am: Voter turnout was 71%, just slightly higher than 2003 which was a record low. Montreal's turnout was way low (since our votes don't matter) and Quebec City's turnout was quite high (since it does).

12:24am: CTV Montreal has shut down its election desk, and is running national news. CBC and Global are still running. Jim Mennie is analyzing for Global, and looks like he's about to lose consciousness.

12:26am: Télé-Québec is out now too. RadCan, TQS and TVA still running.

12:31am: Booberfish has comments on the Global election updates, squeezed between heart-pounding scenes of 24.

12:34am: Global's out for the night (a whole hour and a half!), leaving only CBC with English coverage. Peter Mansbridge has taken over with the National broadcast.

12:37am: TQS has closed up so they don't have to pre-empt the infomercials. We're left with just RadCan and TVA with local election coverage.

12:39am: RadCan is finally calling Louis-Hébert for the Liberals. Final count: 48/41/36.

12:40am: Lanaudière has gone from 6 PQ ridings to 1 PQ riding and 5 ADQ ridings.

12:41am: Popular vote is 33 Lib/31 ADQ/28 PQ/4 Green/4 QS.

12:46am: Giver Donkey has more election-related oopsiness from CBC.ca. Funny enough, it's also about jumping the gun on Charest's riding.

12:50am: The Quebec City region has gone from 1 ADQ seat out of 11 to six out of 11.

12:52am: The island of Montreal has changed only two seats: Crémazie goes from Liberal to PQ, and Laurier-Dorion goes from PQ to Liberal. The ADQ have no seats on the island.

12:57am: Interesting idea being thrown out on RadCan: With its low showing compared to its share of the popular vote, would the PQ support proportional representation? Would the ADQ? If they both were in favour, they could push it through the National Assembly.

1:00am: RadCan shuts down its election desk. All we're left with now is CPAC, with Sheila Copps and Brigitte Pellerin providing commentary.

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