Monday, October 13, 2008

On the serious side of things.

To date, I’ve avoided political discussion on my blog. Today however, I am making a minor exception. As most of you should know, Canadians are voting in a federal election tomorrow. In my opinion, other than by paying our taxes or serving in the military, voting is one of the most patriotic things we can do as citizens. To be sure that I’m fully informed before casting my ballot tomorrow, I’ve spent some time comparing party platforms by way of the internet and party websites. This has been helpful and informative, both in assisting me to make my choice and happily, in giving me some light-hearted blog fodder. I bring this up, not to criticise any particular party or out of any partisan bias, but simply out of curiosity and desire for reader feedback on a serious matter in federal politics:


Punctuation and grammar
in a federal election campaign!

Here are some screen shots clipped straight from party websites:

The Green Party of Canada believes in punctuating headlines. And sentence fragments.

The Conservative Party of Canada agrees (occasionally).

The New Democratic Party of Canada does without such punctuation and prefers contractions usually reserved for colloquial speech
(who'll??)
while the Bloc Québécois is thrilled to have you reading their website, en français!


The Liberal Party of Canada challenges you to comment on these grammatical styles.
Please, have at 'er!
(Or perhaps that should be: Blogger invites comments. Now!)