That was definitely something else. It had the feel of a Super Bowl show from start to finish:

Pre-Game Show
There was lots of pre-game hype. They had updates on rosters, injury reports for both teams (Parrish is day-to-day with an abdominal injury), reporters in the field, and Chuck Cadman entering with a mob of reporters and cameras following him. They had people scalping tickets and the “7 minutes to vote”updates at the bottom of the screen.

The Game
For the main event, the CBC went all out with the “real time vote counter” and Peter Mansbridge’s play-by-play (“boy, there are a lot of Martins in the House…uhh…2 in government…1 in the NDP….no, maybe 2 in the NDP...”). The game even went into overtime with a dramatic one goal win.

As for the vote, I’m sure a lot of people on both sides are breathing sighs of relief.

Post-Game Show
The post-game comments were interesting: Martin and Harper had the full cheering caucus behind them which was likely good for optics. Here’s a quick run-down:

Layton
Obviously, it’s a big day for him. The NDP is actually relevant and have been looking extremely good of late while the Liberals and Tories tear themselves to parts. I’m actually surprised they haven’t seemed to crack 20% in the polls.

Ducceppe
We’ll have to start calling him “Monsieur fache” because the guy looked really pissed today.

Harper
The pundits liked his speech but…I dunno. He was obviously playing to the base and trying to rally the troops behind him. It’s pretty obvious his leadership will come under a lot of scrutiny this summer so he needs to get behind them. He came across a little sanctimonious I thought, but he was better today than he’s been over the past few weeks.

Martin
He went on a little long but, boy, did he ever looked relieved. I thought thanking the strategists so profusely was a little odd since they’ve been under fire for dirty tactics but I guess they do deserve credit. Hitting on the “get to work and move on” theme was definitely a good idea.