Four years ago on Election Day I ended up in a strip club watching the polls close with some writer pals. (What can I say? The TVs were huge). For all the Aerosmith and Kylie Minogue we couldn’t hear much of the feed, but at that last point when the numbers came up and a whole lot of Republican faces changed shape, we knew the world was screwed in specific but as yet unfathomable ways. It’s a very strange thing to watch a friend burst into tears while in the background Bush supporters jubilate and a stripper peels out of a schoolgirl uniform. But there you have it. This time around we'll be at the Drake, Powell Street, Vancouver. (Not to be confused with the altogether funkier Drake on Queen Street, Toronto). A repeat performance in hopes we don’t have to have a repeat performance.

Also this article, which I received via Madeleine Thien about a non-American election campaign focussed on Clark County, Ohio, which is balanced on a razor’s edge between Republicans and Democrats. I’ve quoted the first paragraphs from her open letter—she shot me right in the heart this morning while I was uncaffeinated and hoody-eyed.

Dear Mr. Culp,

My name is Madeleine Thien and I'm a Canadian citizen. This morning, while reading the morning newspaper online (the article I was reading is enclosed), I requested an address for an undecided registered voter in Clark County, Ohio. The name sent to me was yours.

I'm writing to you to encourage you to vote in this upcoming American election, regardless of which candidate you believe will be the best leader for your country. We, too, recently had an election in Canada, an election that so split the electorate that the government now in power does not have a clear majority.

I was born in Vancouver, just across the border from Washington State, and I now live in Quebec City - a place that is geographically closer to Boston than it is to Toronto. I have dear friends and family throughout the United States, from New York to Orlando to Madison, Wisconsin. As you probably know, the line between our country is the longest undefended border in the world. The future of our two countries is deeply entwined. And if this American election is the most important in recent memory for you, then I believe that must be true for me as well. Fortunately or not, I do not have the right to vote in your election, though I feel that its results will impact not only American citizens, but also myself, Canada, and the world . . .

More anti-Bush sentimentalia: George Saunders’ "Press Release from PRKA" (People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction), via one of my fave litbloggers, Stephany Aulenback at Maud Newton’s.

Push comes to shove, there's a bright side--if Bush gets a second term, think of all the cool Americans who’ll move to Canada, where skater kids wear "Bush for President" T-shirts as ironic fashion statements.