Après loi, le déluge?

posted by fidelis

As we now enter the blackout period, as per the Canada Elections Act, Section 329 , it is interesting to return to our original questions (see below). Will the blogs break the law on broadcasting electoral results? Will Canadians be protected from too much information?

It appears that some blogs are following the law, even to the point of suspending comments between 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m EST, as indicated by Pogge (commenting elsewhere on this blog), andrewcoyne.com and of course the mainstream media (e.g., CBC ). Yet it is not difficult to find scofflaws, especially U.S. hosted ones. Mediaburn has a nice little round up of the situation; and from there of course, it is a mere couple of clicks to get news on East Coast returns (and results are coming in as we write!).

So we have established that the situation seems to be something that would make King Canute proud. Now I wish to pose larger queries. Will having access to such information make a difference? Will this knowledge abet strategic voting? Will it affect the results? (Ah, these are questions for when the dust settles :) )