What a vote!

I watched the CBC most of the evening, and most of the commentators made Tim McCarver look like a genius. "Well, we expected the ADQ to come out the blocks with a fast start and watch the other parties overtake them." Do these folks even understand the process? Today was one of the most historic votes in Quebec and maybe Canadian history, and that's what Monsieur Leger Marketing has to say?

Let's cut to the chase and focus on the most fascinating part of the evening: Antonia Maioni's hair. The screen capture above was taken late in the evening, after brave efforts by what must have been a crack SHWAT (Special Hair Weapons and Tactics) team.

When I first saw Ms. Maioni on hair (he he he - that's a typo, but I'll leave it in), I put the remote down. It was a bride's nightmare. (Yeah, it's fake. So what?) Unruly bands of hair were displayed common sense as they tried to fly away from the overpuffy, poorly straightened explosion that threatened to ensnare boom mikes and fellow commentators. I swear the others around the table nearly cracked up. The blonde woman in particular refused for the most part to look in that direction - she's stronger than me - but when she did, you could see her smile burst out, just for a moment.

The director kept close-ups, and that's when the SHWAT team went to work, but this eagle-eyed (left eye only) journalist caught Ms. Maioni's absence in a few overhead shots, no doubt that's when the SHWAT troops brought her over to the heavy artillery. They deserve credit; as the evening wore on, the hair did slowly come under control until around 11 p.m. (see above) it looked downright reasonable.

If anyone out there has an image or video of the hair around 8:15 p.m., I'm begging you for a copy. It's historic.

Bonus comment on the election:

Also fairly historic. The seats don't reflect the vote, which essentially split three ways. I was hoping that the poor showing of the Parti Quebecois seat-wise was a death knell for separatism, but the vote numbers don't reflect that. It'll take another election or two for that.

Last election, the Liberals won with a conservative platform that promised to deal with the deficit and take on the unions. Neither happened and the party nearly lost power to the upstart conservative ADQ. Maybe the subsequent minority government will stiffen the platform. What this means for English Montreal remains unclear.