So I know the U.S. election has been getting a lot of attention, but anyone here following Australia's coming election? If you aren't, Australian politics has been batshit crazy for the past 10 years (as much as the U.S. until recent years), so for political observers like myself it is definitely worth checking, both for entertainment value and because Australia and Canada are very similar countries, so it's worth comparing our respective political cultures.

To summarize, Australia is dominated by two (and 1/2) big-tent parties, Labor (ALP) and the Liberal/Nationals (L/NP, or the coalition). In Australia, party leaders are elected and removed by the parliamentary caucus alone (except recently for the ALP), and this allows for the easy and instantaneous replacement of leaders. Further, both parties are very factionalised, more so than in Canada, with the ALP divided between Labor left and Labor right, and the L/NP divided between liberals and conservatives (both CPC). The result: 9 leadership spills (or challenges) in the past 10 years between the two parties, 6 of which occurred with the party in office. This election, we have the ALP lead by Bill Shorten...a person who voted to replace the Kevin Rudd (the PM at the time) with Julia Gillard in 2010, then backstabbed her in favour of Rudd again in 2013. And we have the L/NP lead by Malcolm Turnbull...who was elected leader in 2008, replaced by Tony Abbott in 2009, then removed Abbott as party leader and prime minister just 8 months ago. In other words, it's a complete clusterfuck, though perhaps now things are finally starting to settle???