We just posted a new opinion poll. Make sure to head on over and post your vote on whether we should update O'Canada to remove gender specific language.

In an effort to better understand who is visiting Maple Leaf Web and to improve the overall experience for individual readers of Maple Leaf Web, we’re asking out readership to take a short survey.

In order to enter your name for a chance to win an IPOD Touch, you need to include your email address at the end of the survey. Thanks!

Richard Albert, over at ThePolitic.com, interviews past Liberal Party of Canada leadership candidate and current member or Parliament for riding of Willowdale, Martha Hall Findlay.

One question asked by Richard concerning why Ignatieff is a better leader for Canada than the current prime minister, brought this response:

Michael Ignatieff is better than Stephen Harper for a number of reasons, but first and foremost relates to my last answer.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out Maple Leaf Web’s discussion forums, now might be the time! We have just completed an important upgrade of the forum software and we ended up updating the overall look and feel of the forums. We hope you enjoy the new look!

Jonathan McLeod, a colleague of mine over at ThePolitic.com, recently got a chance to interview Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada. Apparently, Ms. May is quite the fan of former leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party and Premier of Saskatchewan.

The Hill Times recently published an interesting editorial, very similar incidentally to a posting her at MLW by Harold Jansen, titled, Ignatieff’s committing political euthanasia - If a party has to commit political suicide to defend its credibility, it means there’s not much of it left in the party. In the article Andelo Persichilla comments:

I see two major problems afflicting the Liberals.

We are finally joining the social networking revolution and therefore we’ve activated a Twitter account for Mapleleafweb. To follow us make sure to visit our Twitter page @mapleleafweb.

Tom Flanagan in today’s Globe and Mail argues for the end of the “per-vote” subsidy given to federal political parties in Canada.

Third, Canada could consider a taxpayer check-off system of the type found in the United States at the federal level and in 41 states. The basic idea is that taxpayers, when filing annual returns, can tick a box indicating a political contribution.

Raphael Alexander ponders that impact of blogging under your REAL name, rather than using a pseudonym to remain anonymous:

There is only one day left in the 2009 Nova Scotia General Election and therefore it might not be a bad idea to quickly highlight some of the popular Nova Scotia election resources:

Nodice: Nova Scotia Provincial Election 2009 Coverage - Provides statistical and brief background information on the 2009 provincial election in Nova Scotia.

It looks like British Columbian's have given the Gordon Campbell Liberal party a third straight mandate to govern.

B.C. Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell has won an historic third straight term as the province's premier. Preliminary results in Tuesday's B.C. election show Campbell's Liberals leading with 45.7 per cent of the popular vote, ahead of Carole James's NDP at 42.2 per cent.

I'm not a big fan of B.C. premier Gordon Campbell, but am consistently surprised at what an excellent campaigner he is. For example, how cool is this?:

"The premier started his day at an event with the stunning backdrop of the $143-million Park Bridge, part of a $972-million project to widen one of B.C.'s most dangerous stretches of highway.

...

In response to a series of reforms proposed by Prime Minister Harper, the Government of Manitoba is investigating new ways of selecting provincial representatives in the Senate of Canada. As part of this process, the Manitoba Government just completed a series of public consultations, during which I recommended the province adopt a "Weighted-District-Election" model for selecting Senators-in-waiting... 

Helen Forsey, the daughter of the late eminent constitutional scholar, Eugene Forsey, weighs in on what her father would have had to say about the constitutional "crisis" in December. It's a worthwhile refresher course on the principles of parliamentary government, especially in a minority government situation. You can read it here.

Yesterday, Elections Canada issued the fourth quarter financial returns for political parties in 2008. In November, party finance became headline news when the Conservatives tried to remove the annual subsidy for political parties in the economic update. Party finance  is usually not a sexy topic and has since faded from the headlines. But the release of the new numbers is exciting for those of us who study and are obsessed by the finances of Canada's political parties (I think there are three of us).