The Saskatchewan General Election of 1929

The democratic system of government is based on the dual right of the individual citizen to choose those who will govern him and to call to account those chosen. Without these two essentials no system of government can properly be called "democratic". An election, therefore, is an initial step in the political process, and the study of electoral behavior is of immense importance to a comprehension of the underlying processes through which men govern themselves, not only as members of a political unit, but also as segments of a social organism. An election and its preceding campaign is often a synopsis of the temperament of an era; to study an election campaign is to reveal the social harmony or disharmony, the economic prosperity or depression, of a particular point in time. The Saskatchewan general election of 1929 was such a synopsis

Novel role for EKLF in megakaryocyte lineage commitment

Megakaryocytes and erythroid cells are thought to derive from a common progenitor during hematopoietic differentiation. Although a number of transcriptional regulators are important for this process, they do not explain the bipotential result. We now show by gain- and loss-of-function studies that erythroid Krüppel-like factor (EKLF), a transcription factor whose role in erythroid gene regulation is well established, plays an unexpected directive role in the megakaryocyte lineage. EKLF inhibits the formation of megakaryocytes while at the same time stimulating erythroid differentiation. Quantitative examination of expression during hematopoiesis shows that, unlike genes whose presence is required for establishment of both lineages, EKLF is uniquely down-regulated in megakaryocytes after formation of the megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitor. Expression profiling and molecular analyses support these observations and suggest that megakaryocytic inhibition is achieved, at least in part, by EKLF repression of Fli-1 message levels