A year before what would’ve been Canada’s next election, PM Stephen Harper dissolves Parliament, and calls an election for October 14. He’d been running a minority Conservative government for 2 1/2 years.

For me, the best part about Canadian election season is simple: It’s short! I mean, in the US, we had people declaring their intentions to run for president in, what, 2006, during midterms? Next door, MPs — current ones and wannabes alike (not to mention the party leaders, who all have seats in Parliament themselves) — have just thirty days to convince the citizens of their respective ridings (similar to congressional districts) that they suck the least out of everyone.

Another good part: Although each party gets commercial spots within regular programming on TV, the CBC (at the very least…don’t know about CTV or Global) designates about five minutes of airtime just for political ads. And not just for the Big Four (Liberals, Conservatives, New Democratic Party, Bloc Quebecois); the smaller parties there get airtime, too! When’s the last time you saw an advert by a party that wasn’t represented by an elephant or a jackass? (Cue crickets.)

And lastly: Canadians know how to mark an “X” or a checkmark. No need for voting machines there. Oh, and they can count their ballots in one night! Remember 2000? While their election was done and Canadians knew the Liberals would have a third go-around at screwing stuff up, we in the US still had no effing clue if we would be dealing with a Bush or a Gore.