Gilles Duceppe Defeats Stephen Harper! Casey Dorrell

The Conservatives won the Canadian elections and will soon command a minority government. It's going to take some time before it sinks in that Stephen Harper is our Prime Minister now. Odds are, you, the reader, fall into one of two camps: either you're Canadian and already know all about this, or you're not Canadian and don't care much about our elections. Fair enough. I'll leave the politics to the political blogs, and return to our vapid insular world of music where political discussions rarely venture far beyond catchy sloganeering, raised fists, and cries of 'oi'. In 2004, Puretracks had four of five major national party leaders list their top five favourite songs, then had people vote for the leaders based solely on their music preferences. Stephen Harper won this vote too. Likely not because his taste is good (it's not), but because it was better than the rest of the leaders. I've put the songs up for download, so feel free to listen . . . but there's honestly not much of interest here. What we end up finding out is, well, to be expected. It turns out that they're all old. And they all have bad taste. And none of them like Canadian music (save for Krall and the lame ploy of BTO, The Bare Naked Ladies being extraterrestrial, of course). Extra points to Harris for inexplicably favouring the Black Eyed Peas. I guess I should be happy that they're too busy running the country to listen to music. Still, congratulations Harper and Layton for not including BTO's "Taking Care of Business". If either of them had gotten three more votes (combining to make a majority of 155 seats) maybe they'd be able to do just that. Some older downloads get removed after a short period. Sadly for you, this is one of them. Download: Stephen Harper (Conservative Party) with 124 seats: 1. ACDC - Thunderstruck 2. The Beatles - I Want to hold your hand 3. Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues 4. Original Cast of Cats - Mungojerrie And Rumpelteazer 5. Duke Ellington & Ella FitzGerald - It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) Paul Martin (Liberal Party) With 103 seats: 1. U2 - Beautiful Day 2. BTO - Taking Care of Business 3. Nana Mouskouri - Moondance 4. Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water 5. Diana Krall - A Case of You (Joni Mitchell cover) Jack Layton (New Democratic Party) with 29 seats: 1. Barenaked Ladies - If I had a Million Dollars 2. Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time 3. Joan Baez - Blowin' in the Wind 4. Buena Vista Social Club - El Cuartode Tula** 5. Barlow - Married by Elvis Jim Harris (Green Party) with 0 seats: 1. Rascalz - Top of the world 2. Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi 3. BTO - Taking Care of Business 4. U2 - Elevation* 5. Black Eyed Peas - Where is the love * Live BBC Version, which probably isn't his favourite. ** He had the entire soundtrack listed, but that's cheating. Missing from the list was Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the seperatist Bloc Quebecois Party (usually referred to as the Bloc Party) who won 51 seats. Thus I declare Duceppe winner by default as, without his selections, we're simply left with . . . The Bloc Party: 1. Bloc Party - This Modern Love (Live at Virgin Radio) 2. Bloc Party - Like Eating Glass (Live XFM Session) 3. Bloc Party - Little Thoughts (Live XFM Session) 4. Bloc Party - The Marshals are Dead (Live Radio 1, Lamacq) 5. Bloc Party - So Here We Are Again (Live Peel Session) Buy: Bloc Party - Silent Alarm Remixed Related: Paul Martin Creates Higher Unemployment: See Bono Always Two There is, A Rock Star and a Politician A moment of silence for the end of Bono and Paul Martin's friendship and an end to Geoff's Bono posts.