Sounds Like Canada, on CBC Radio One, is taping a series of 40 second interviews with people across the country about “their thoughts on the election.” Brendan Elliott came along to the back yard of 84 Fitzroy Street this morning to tape a piece with me.

If you thought this was a difficult election, try summarizing its challenges in 40 seconds.

The piece will air tomorrow morning, sometime between 10:10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. (which seems like a tricky way of getting me to listen to the entire show).

Elections Canada released the official list of candidates for Charlottetown this morning. In addition to candidates mentioned here before, Baird Judson is running for the Christian Heritage Party.

Here’s a list of links to the platforms of the parties fielding candidates in Charlottetown:

• Christian Heritage
• Conservative
• Green
• Liberal
• NDP

Our man Buzz gets interviewed by Steve Rubel.

I thought that the series of federal candidate meetings we had here last week would allow me to do one of two things: either conjure up a enthusiastic endorsement of one of the candidates, or, at least, to write at some length about the candidates and their ideas.

I find myself unable to do either.

I think, in my heart of hearts, I wanted the candidates to fall into the stereotypes I had pre-assigned them. I wanted Will McFadden to be a lunatic. Or to be some sort of Green Trudeau. I wanted Dody Crane to appear muddled and beholden to big labour. I wanted Darren Peters to be the devil. And I wanted Shawn Murphy to appear irrelevant and worthy of casting aside.

Alas, none of the candidates matched my stereotypes.

Will was neither a lunatic nor an Ubermensch: he was an enthusiastic, well-spoken environmentalist one-worlder who had been asked to run, and accepted.

Dody was smart, and passionate. She’s a True Believier in what the NDP stands for, and she’s back for her fifth election because she thinks she can make a difference.

Darren appeared to be more sympathetic to the Greens than to his own party, and wasn’t at all devil-like. He reminded me of myself (albeit with more musical ability, family connections, and facial hair).

Shawn convinced me that he’s a hard-working guy who understands that it takes a long time to get things done, and that he has the patience to see things through. He came across as scrupulously honest, and although he’s very much a Team Martin player, he was willing, at times, to poke holes in the platform.

In the end, I’m no further ahead, decision-wise, than I was before.

I suppose it’s time now to dig into the party platforms and see what the meat of each party’s ideas looks like.

Policy and platforms aside, here’s some anecdotal evidence of our sessions:

Will bought his snazzy green suit at Value Village. He walked in, picked it off the rack, and it fit. During his time in the military, he went overseas to Bosnia, where he had something of an epiphany, and realized he wanted to work on the peace side of the equation, not the war side. He lives in his van, which has solar powered Christmas lights.

Darren is an accomplished folk singer, no doubt due his Carmichael roots. He’s anti-choice on abortion, but pro-legalization of marijuana. He considers himself a progressive. His campaign vehicle is a Toyota Highlander; it gets 27 mpg in city driving.

Dody truly believes there are good people and bad people in the world, and she has no fear of pointing of which are which. She seems to take the existence of the Greens as a personal affront, even more so the notion that someone on the left would consider voting for them. When the new office building on the boardwalk in Charlottetown opens, her law office will be located just under the giant heart window. Her campaign vehicle is a VW New Beetle; it gets 27 mpg in city driving, the same as Darren’s.

Shawn spends 36 weeks of the year in Ottawa. He leaves Charlottetown every Sunday, spends Monday through Thursday in Ottawa, returns to town for a full day of constituency work on Fridays, and repeats. On principle, he doesn’t use his accumulated Aeroplan miles himself: he donates them to efforts like flying a student up to Ottawa each session to tape a TV program.

That’s simply a collection of the enduring images; there was 6 hours of conversation in and around all of that, and I think all in attendance learned a lot. Thanks to all the candidates for attending; I think everyone, candidates included, came away thinking that that this is how politics should be done.

Based on the success of our meetings, we’ve made a tentative decision to carry on our “Sessions at 84” series of informal meetings, expanding our scope beyond the political; think of it as Zap Your PRAM without the lasagna. Watch this space for details.

Thanks to the good graces of my host Steve, and an invitation from my symbiotic dance company, I have been in Montreal since Saturday morning. Here are some observations.

While our mobility overlords at Aliant now charge 35 cents to automatically connect a 411 call, here the call is connected for free and, to boot, the number is sent to you, automatically, as an SMS message. This is an excellent, and creative, use of text messaging. Bravo Bell Canada.

If you need to buy shoes in Montreal, go to Ste. Catherine in and around Peel: there’s a good variety of shoe stores there. Do not walk down St. Laurent or Ste. Denis, as there are no shoe stores there. I will come home with a new pair of shoes that, upon reflection, will act as an unintended walking advertisement for my colleagues upstairs.

It was hot in Montreal this weekend. Walking around the streets downtown makes me feel that I live in some sort of Amish enclave: fashion in Montreal is almost universally bold, colourful and often over the top.

Steve and I ate at an excellent restaurant, Délices de l’île Maurice, serving the cuisine of Mauritius. The atmosphere was crazy insane — the chef engaged in a 10 minute tirade at a customer who entered and sat, alone, at a table for four — but the food was excellent, cheap ($23 for a four-course meal for two) and the experience was thrilling.

Sunday was occupied by a fast flurry of last-minute computer support, fixing a corrupted Word file containing the French and English translations of a speech in Russian to be delivered that night. I got the file to give up the goods (thanks to TextEdit), and after a wild goose chase through the bowels of UQAM, found a photocopier that would let me run off 400 copies.

We spent Sunday night at Convoy PQ 17, which was thrilling in its own right, followed by a receiption for Russian and Canadian Merchant Navy veterans. As you might imagine, if you know Prince Edward Island, the two veterans that Steve struck up a conversation with both had Island connections: one had a lady friend whose parents were born in Egmont, and the other was the former owner of the Cymbria Campground in South Rustico. They both had many stories to tell of WW II and their role in it — some sad, some funny, some horrific. I can’t think of a better way to have spent the 60th anniversary of D-day.

I’m off to Charlotteotown in 20 minutes to resume regular activities. See you on the flip side.

Bruce Cockburn is playing the Jubilee in Summerside on July 5. I saw him perform at Hamilton Place about a decade ago — an amazing concert. If you are a fan (and shouldn’t you be?), this is a concert not to miss. We’re in A19 and A20.

I’m off to Montreal to see Convoy P.Q. 17 tomorrow night. I’m taking extreme packing to the next level by leaving the laptop at home. Talk amongst yourselves.

WiFi and lemon iced tea. Who could ask for anything more. SSID is formosateahouse. WiFi Access Point donated by my colleagues at silverorange.

I incurred my first Prince Edward Island library fines today.

In the olden days — before May 1, 2004 — Prince Edward Island didn’t charge fines for overdue library books. You received a polite notice in the mail, or by email, telling you your book was overdue. And you brought it back.

That was then, this is now. Today I had to shell out just under $5.00 for an overdue book and an overdue VHS tape.

As much as I appreciated the novelty of PEI being fine-free, I don’t have a huge problem with paying penance for keeping materials longer than I should, especially if there’s evidence that this system generally keeps materials more available to everyone.

And I can always take comfort from the notion that the money from my fines will be used by the library for Good.

Except it isn’t. I learned today that money from library fines flows into general revenue. It goes to pay for potholes and MRI machines and wind turbines. And, I suppose, in some small, small way, to buy books. A small, small, small way.

That’s a shame.

Liberal candidate Shawn Murphy is scheduled to join us on Thursday, June 3 at 4:00 p.m. here at 84 Fitzroy Street, Charlottetown. Like our meetings with Will McFadden, Dody Crane and Darren Peters earlier in the week, this will be an informal opportunity to learn more about the candidate and his ideas. All are welcome.