The Tally Room

Yesterday I laid out how leaders are elected in Canada and the UK, where party members play a central role in deciding leaders, as opposed to New Zealand and Australia, where leaders are elected by members of Parliament. So what are the merits of the...

After the events of the last few weeks further demonstrated the inability of Stephane Dion to remain as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Dion announced last Monday that he would resign as soon as the party chose an interim leader. Dion had...

It's been a while since I've posted Daily Show clips, so I thought I'd put up Monday night's Daily Show coverage of the Canadian constitutional crisis, I particularly enjoyed the second segment's meandering into the republic debate.

Over the last few days most of the remaining undecided seats have been decided. In CA-04 the Republican has held on, while the Democrat was elected in OH-15. In the Louisiana delayed elections last week, it appears that the Democrats could be on track...

I don't know enough about Canadian politics to do in-depth coverage of provincial elections, but I thought I'd do a wrap-up of yesterday's provincial election in Quebec. Liberal Party premier Jean Charest was re-elected as Premier. Charest was a minister in Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative...

Sky News, Foxtel and Austar announced today that they will be launching a new network, A-SPAN, modelled on the US C-SPAN, which broadcasts live, unedited feeds of the US Congress. The network will launch on January 20 broadcasting the inauguration of US President-Elect Barack Obama....

ABC Radio National’s Background Briefing program broadcast a fascinating program two weekends ago regarding the interaction of Italian and Australian politics arising...

The AEC is currently in the process of concluding the current federal redistribution for Tasmania and Western Australia, who have maintained their numbers of seats at 5 and 15 respectively. The new GIS data has not been uploaded yet, and as soon as it...

Following Governor-General Michaëlle Jean's decision yesterday to prorogue the Canadian Parliament until January 26, Canada's parliamentary democracy is effectively suspended, and the decision has grave consequences for all countries that follow the Westminster system of government, including Australia and the UK. Prime Minister Stephen Harper,...

All of the results have now been entered for the Victorian council elections. The Greens have won 19 seats. Greens seats were retained in Melbourne, all three wards of Yarra, two wards of Moreland and one ward each in Moonee Valley, Brimbank, Whitehorse, Yarra...