From today’s Vancouver Sun:

Writing in the latest issue of Policy Options, published by the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy, Robin Sears and Joseph Lavoie — who worked on the Obama campaign, offer an assortment of “lessons that Canadian politicians of every stripe could learn from.”

They say Obama “built a juggernaut that will be the model of future political campaigns.”

Looking back at the Canadian campaign that preceded the Oct. 14 vote, voter interest and participation were minimal. Turnout at the polls was below 60 per cent.

No grand oratory was heard and not a single rally was memorable. Indeed the most talked-about campaign occurrence was an interview in which Stephen Harper awkwardly opined it was a good time to buy stocks.

Sears and Lavoie note that in the 2006 election — won by the Conservatives — fewer than 25,000 Canadians worked on the campaign. That’s a fraction of those who this year got involved south of the border, even when population differences are considered.

<a href="Read the full story here.