A small posting about today's Canadian election, because all anyone can do now is a small posting on today's Canadian election. Even though there are polls closing on the other side of the country in a matter of minutes, Canadian election law will not permit Canadian sites (or papers or broadcasters) to carry results until (in our case, in the westernmost time zone) all polls across four-and-a-half time zones close.
What that means is that non-Canadian sites like CNN.com, NYTimes.com and others will be able to carry earlier information to Canadians than homegrown sites. Broadcast, print and online operations domestically will be blacked out of election material until local results are available.
As someone managing a newsroom that has to publish online and in print this evening, I wonder how much longer the law will be enforceable --- or even if it will hold tonight.