Dalton McGuinty and Elton John last May, at Starz Animation Toronto – an innovative enterprise to which the Government of Ontario had just pledged $23 million. “It's great to see something so positive,” Mr. John said. REUTERS/Mike Cassese.

For those who may actually be interested, our resident Ontario historian Randall White has now unburdened himself on the Toronto Centre by-election in Ontario politics last week. He also offers some hard and soft information on the March 4 Ontario provincial by-elections, in Leeds-Grenville and Ottawa West-Nepean. CLICK HERE for the complete article, or see the Canadian Provinces category to the right of this page.

In an interview around noon today an (unusually) immaculately groomed Dr. White noted as well that in the Harris-Decima/Canadian Press survey on Senate reform that has just come out, Ontario residents are shown as slightly more supportive of electing Senators (64%) than residents of Alberta (62%) – to say nothing of Atlantic Canada (56%) or Quebec (46%).

There is nothing all that surprising about this, Dr. White suggested. Electing Senators is not the same as reforming the Senate to give each province an equal number of Senate seats. Still, given the position on such matters typically taken by the Government of Ontario in the more recent past (abolish the Senate – something apparently supported by only 21% of Ontario residents), Dr. White did confess that he found the new Harris-Decima poll “a bit amusing.”

Another intriguing point about the poll, he suggested: some 66% of Liberal supporters are said to be in favour of electing Senators, compared with only 58% of Conservative supporters and 58% of NDP supporters. (Someone should tell Mr. Ignatieff about these results?) On the other hand, NDP supporters did show the second greatest percentage in favour of abolishing the Senate (32%) – exceeded only by the Bloc Quebecois at 55%! Polls, of course, are just what dogs relieve themselves on, as John Diefenbaker famously said. But we agree with Dr. White: this one is both a bit more interesting and a bit more amusing than usual.