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Not a Party Leader blog - but better

Catching up with my friend David Akin's new Canadian Election blog for CTV News. Good stuff - great to see David blogging again.

David points to what might be the first (and is certainly guaranteed to remain the funniest) of the official political party blogs to go up. It's not a party leader blog, so the betting is still open, but...

Hosted at Liberal.ca, the Prime Minister's chief speechwriter, Scott Feschuk, is running a Blackberry-driven campaign blog.

Feschuk's last gig was as the TV critic for the National Post. His columns alone were well worth the cover price for the paper. And if his first few posts are anything to go by, his campaign blog is going to be at least as irreverent, deranged, and coffee-sneezingly funny as his old TV columns were.

Check this out. Remember - what you're about to read is excerpted from an official campaign blog hosted by the ruling political party of Canada:

These blogs are great because they allow people with special insight to instantly convey their astute observations and sage opinions to a knowledge-starved world. Or so I'm told. Personally, I'm mostly going to use this one to talk about the lost thespian promise of Erik Estrada. Because really, someone ought to. The man had screen charisma the way Marlon Brando had neck fat.

I may also touch on this whole "who should run the country" deal we've got going on here in Canada.

Last night, the opposition voted non-confidence in the government and forced an election campaign that will take place over the holiday season. This means two things: 1) the prime minister will this morning be visitng the Governor-General to ask her (very nicely, possibly while eating a crumpet) to dissolve the 38th Parliament. And 2) millions of innocent Canadian children will be confronted with the onerous task of staring into the television this Christmas season and trying to tell Stephen Harper from the Grinch.

Remember, kids: one is grumpy and has a heart two sizes too small. And the other one's the Grinch.

Travelling as part of what is officially called the Leader's Tour (and what is colloquially known among staffers as That Plane That Hardly Ever Seems To Land in Alberta for Some Reason), I will be filing typo-ridden, thumb-pecked dispatches on my Blackberry over the course of the campaign.

Remember: views expressed on this blog do not necessarily represent the policies or beliefs of Paul Martin. Except when I write about the hypnotic musical stylings of Nana Mouskouri. We're totally in sync on that.

Only two small gripes - no comments, and no RSS feed. Apart from that, it almost makes me want to vote Liberal. Almost.