One hates to discourage any American foray in Canadian political analysis, but Fivethirtyeight.com [bad link fixed], the normally reliable US political blog that draws on the statistical tools of Sabermetrics, badly bollixed one such attempt yesterday. The website, which is predicting a near Conservative majority in today's British election, carries an article by research assistant Thomas Dollar, urging Tory Leader David Cameron to follow Stephen Harper's example and "Go Big or Go Home." Moneyquote: Harper's 2008 budget would have cut Federal funding of parliamentary elections--to the benefit of the Conservatives. All opposition parties formed an ABC coalition--Anyone but Conservative--to defeat...

Defenders of Harper's three-month prorogation lean heavily on the talking point that Jean Chretien and Pierre Trudeau both used prorogation without provoking a fuss. Contrarian reader C. Leonhardt thinks the analogy is flawed: Both these prime ministers had a majority in the House when they prorogued Parliament. If their decisions had been challenged, they would have won the vote in the House. Harper's party does not hold a majority of the seats in the House. He would have lost the vote. To claim that his actions repesent past practice is false. At this point one man controls this country. The last line overstates...