Anyone interested in what the upcoming Canadian election means for the states should check out Colby Cosh's primer for Americans. Somehow it has the tone of the opening crawl of a Star Wars movie ("Canada's conservatives, fractured into two parties by 15 years of regional quarreling, had just reunited." sounds not too far from "Striking from a secret base...") but it's nonetheless informative.

We are now in San Luis Obispo, going south to LA today. Weather has been wonderful the whole trip: the only rain we've encountered was on our way out of Alberta, on the east side of the Rockies.