SAULT STE MARIE, Ontario, Canada – Rarely do U.S. presidential election campaigns spill across the border into Canada. But it’s known to happen (the Americans try to invade everywhere).

This time, Michael Moore, the 54-year-old Academy Award-winning film-maker, author and political commentator, entered Canada to study how the American and Canadian political systems differ. Whereas U.S. voters go to the polls on November 4, Canada held a much-quieter election today.

Last week, Moore drove north from Traverse City, Michigan, and crossed the International Bridge to attend a political debate at a college in the border city of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. There, he interviewed election candidates and voters.

Journalist Frank Dobrovnik from The Sault Star newspaper watched closely: “The five-person (film) crew slipped in shortly after the debate started at 2 p.m., but Moore’s familiarly unkempt persona — matching black sweatshirt and sweatpants, Detroit Tigers ball-cap and sneakers sans socks — precluded any possibility of anonymity.”

Quickly, Moore noticed big differences from the politics he knows at home. American election campaigns last nearly two years. Those in Canada take less than two months.

Americans choose a president. Canadians elect a prime minister.

Moore heard candidates from five parties, all to him sounding left-of-centre. “In some ways, all the parties here are to the left of the Democrats (in the U.S.) because… no (Canadian) Conservative would ever dare to utter the words, ‘I’m against universal health care’,” he said.

At Moore’s urging, most of the candidates lingered for a chat, a photo-op and sips of Molson Canadian beer.

Normally, Canadians don’t boast much unless they’ve just won an ice-hockey title. But Moore may have discovered that the neighbors “above” the U.S. on every map hold the upper hand in politics too.

Canada’s political system works faster and better. Which Canadian prime minister wasn’t vastly superior to George W. Bush?

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