Can I be Slovenia?

It was only about a year ago that I was bragging to Rivka of Respectful of Otters fame about how lovely it was that the Canadian blogosphere wasn't splintered ideologically the way the U.S. one is. What a difference a few months makes. What we're seeing happening, right before our eyes, is the Balkanization of that blogosphere, starting with the Blogging Tories and followed up by the Blogging New Democrats and then the big-umbrella left, the Progressive Bloggers. In a few years, we'll all be analyzing how it all happened, so take notes while you can.

I find the whole phenomenon both exciting and sad. Exciting because it's made otherwise invisible blogs suddenly visible, which is a wonderful thing. Sad because it seems we're destined to turn into the echo chamber that the U.S. blogosphere is, and I don't like that one bit. Blame it on the polarization of the current political climate, blame it on the rapid growth spurt of Canada-specific political blogs, blame it on something else altogether, but I'm already feeling kind of nostalgic for the good old days when everybody but everybody was reading Andrew Coyne and Warren Kinsella even if they didn't agree with a thing they said.

To counteract this trend, I'm going to go out of my way to keep reading my daily dose of right-leaning blogs alongside the usual suspects, and I'd encourage others to do the same. Let me recommend Andrew Coyne, Colby Cosh, and Bound by Gravity; I rarely agree with anything they say, but that doesn't stop me from being continually in awe of the way they say it. And Balkanization may be inevitable, but I'll keep fighting the lousier side effects of it as long as I can.