“It’s a massive shock that turns Canadian politics on its head: the NDP has won a majority government in Alberta,” the CBC reports.

“The NDP won just over 41% of the popular vote, the Wildrose got 24% and the PCs were at about 28% — roughly what was reported by many pollsters in the run-up to the election.”

in the final days of an unexpectedly tight contest with Labor Party leader Ed Miliband, British Prime Minister David Cameron “has been letting it rip,” the Washington Post reports.

“Whether the conspicuous display of emotion will save Cameron’s premiership remains to be seen. Polls suggest the Tories are likely to win more seats than Labor but may not have the support needed from smaller parties to form a government in a year when the British electorate has fractured as never before.”

“For Cameron, a 48-year-old Oxford graduate of royal lineage who had openly coveted the top job in British politics since his youth, that would probably mean the abrupt end of his career. It could also mark the final failure of his attempt to steer the Conservative Party toward the political center, an effort that critics say he abandoned all too easily during his first term.”

Mashable has a good voter guide explaining the key issues.

Washington Post: “About 30 million British citizens will venture out on Thursday to crumbling town halls and soaring medieval churches, set stubby pencils to paper and take part in a hallowed ritual: They will vote. But for all the orderliness and timeless quality of Election Day, politics in Britain has rarely been as fractured as it is today. The two-party system that dominated the 20th century has collapsed, and no one quite knows what will replace it.”

“The fissures in British politics have been amply evident on the campaign trail, where the competition is no longer just between the long-dominant Conservative and Labor parties. Both are now fighting multi-front wars against challengers on the right and left. If once they were considered fringe players, these smaller parties are now central actors, with the potential to play an instrumental role in dictating the country’s direction.”

“Campaigning for Sunday’s second wave of quadrennial unified local elections has highlighted a legal loophole that allows candidates to go to extremes — including nudity — to gain votes,” the Japan Times reports.

“In contrast with the ubiquitous portrait shots preferred by most candidates, the campaign poster for Teruki Goto, an independent running for the Chiyoda Ward Assembly in Tokyo, went viral after it showed him posing nude against a Rising Sun flag motif while raising a katana over the Imperial Seal, his genitals covered by his name.”

“According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, the use of nudity is not banned because there are no restrictions on poster design in the Public Offices Election Law. All posters are legal as long they bear the name of the candidate and are posted on the designated boards.”

British prime minister David Cameron “offered a glimpse of the ‘good life’ after five years of economic pain, at Tuesday’s launch of a Conservative manifesto that saw the prime minister break with austerity,” the Financial Times reports.

“With Conservatives and Labour deadlocked in the polls, Mr Cameron made a series of unfunded promises to voters to underpin his claim that better times are around the corner… And he followed a Thatcherite script in his attempt to win over wavering voters, including UK Independence party supporters.”

“Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France’s far-right National Front, said on Monday he would not seek its ticket to stand in regional polls, taking some of the sting out of a damaging public row with his daughter Marine, the party’s current leader,” Reuters reports.

“But the 86-year-old former paratrooper told Le Figaro in an interview that he was disappointed by his daughter and would not quit politics, showing that the family feud that could emerge as a threat to the FN’s bid for power is not necessarily over. Marine Le Pen, who in 2011 took over as FN party leader from her father, has been trying to persuade him to retire both from the December regional polls and from politics altogether.”

New Statesman: “Good polling news for Labour, as three consecutive polls suggest the party has pulled ahead. Survation shows Labour four points ahead of the Tories (35 per cent to 31 per cent), Panelbase has it six points ahead (37 per cent to 31 per cent), and TNS gives the party a three-point lead (33 per cent to 31 per cent).”

An average of polls by the Telegraph shows both the Conservatives and Labor have scored 34% across all of the polls published during the last seven days.

“There are even signs that the Tories may have narrowly pulled ahead. Of the thirteen polls published in the last week, the Conservatives were ahead in six, Labour in only four. The two parties were tied in the remaining three.”