OCTOBER 8, 2008

       I’m a bad Canadian. There, I said it. But I’m not the only one. I know there were thousands of you tuned into the American vice-presidential debate while the Canadian prime ministers debate happened at the same time. And yes, we are just days away from our federal election.

       So why did I do it? How can I live with myself? Well, I’m asking you the same question!

       My reason: it was pretty darn entertaining! There’s a certain entertainment value in watching the “regular hockey mom from Alaska” talking to “Joe Sixpack” about the “team of mavericks.”

       It wasn’t a tough choice for me. Yes, Canada’s future is important to me, but the buzz surrounding a potential vice-president embarrassing her country and political party was too much for me to pass up. Will she or won’t she? I, like millions of others, needed to see for myself.

       And instead of hearing our political leaders battling it out, going over the same issues as their American counterparts, the Canadian version didn’t have the zing of verbal duels. Maybe it’s because we’ve heard the same people say the same things for so long, and Americans now have somebody new to ridicule. I don’t know. But what I do know is it makes for fascinating television.

       Unlike some people who get upset these debates preempt prime time programming, I enjoy it because this is stuff you can’t script. This is the real world, as strange as it seems. And knowing somebody like a former pageant queen from small-town Alaska that has a past so interesting and arguably newsworthy, I’m hooked by the intrigue of watching American politics.

       Not that I’m saying Canada needs to link politics with entertainment, but I’m sure if we had the same circus Americans do, more of us would be voting and we might actually some day have a majority government.