On what TV channel can I follow the Canadian election returns tomorrow?

October 13, 2008 5:58 PM

I'm in the US and want to follow the Canadian parliamentary election returns. Will any US TV station, cable or otherwise, have election coverage?
posted by Kattullus to media & arts (7 comments total)

Alternatively, anyone know of a Canadian TV station that can be streamed online?
posted by Kattullus at 6:11 PM on October 13, 2008

Global TV claims to have live streaming on election night, though I guess you won't find how much live streaming until tomorrow night.
posted by Phire at 6:16 PM on October 13, 2008

"C-SPAN will carry a live simultaneous broadcast of CBC's coverage of the Canadian election from 9 p.m. (EDT) to 1 a.m. (EDT) on C-SPAN's main network."
posted by profwhat at 6:18 PM on October 13, 2008

I would think Canada's election blackout laws would prevent Global from streaming online until polls have closed everywhere in the country. (I wonder if someone in B.C. can just get around the blackout by tuning in to C-SPAN on digital cable or satellite.)
posted by Dasein at 6:39 PM on October 13, 2008

Dasein- my recollection is that NO election results are broadcast until ALL polls are closed.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 7:33 PM on October 13, 2008

I believe its no longer the case that broadcasts have to wait until all polls in the country are closed. They just have to wait until the particular riding is closed. The Elections Act says:

No person shall transmit to the public, in an electoral district on polling day before the close of all of the polling stations in that electoral district, the results of an election survey that have not previously been transmitted to the public.

"electoral district"
«circonscription »
"electoral district" means a place or territorial area that is represented by a member in the House of Commons.
posted by teg at 9:08 AM on October 14, 2008

teg, that's the way it's always been. In the past, this has meant that TV/radio coverage doesn't start in your time zone until polls are closed in your time zone. But now it means that coverage can't go on the internet until the polls in BC are closed, because you'd be transmitting the information to electoral districts in BC before the polls in BC are closed.
posted by winston at 2:11 PM on October 15, 2008