Stockwell as Doris would make surfers' Day

An outpouring of grassroots support in this campaign has reached a milestone, as Internet surfers clamour for Canada's new sweetheart: Doris Day, née Stockwell.

The Internet petition launched by comics at the CBC television show This Hour Has 22 minutes, demanding that Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day be forced to change his name to Doris, surpassed 3 per cent of Canadian voters yesterday, and kept on tallying supporters.

By 7 p.m. yesterday, the petition had logged 478,425 electronic "signatures," well over the roughly 350,000 that constitutes the 3 per cent of Canadian voters that would, under one Canadian Alliance proposal, be enough to trigger a binding referendum.

Mr. Day had said even before the Internet petition that he felt 3 per cent was too low, but refused to specify another threshold.

"I think it means the Alliance will raise the bar," comic Rick Mercer, who launched the petition, said after it broke the 400,000-mark.

The Doris Day petition has taken off with amazing speed, logging about 17,000 votes when Mr. Mercer first aired his rant on Monday night suggesting the name-change campaign. After he appeared on television interviews and garnered newspaper coverage, the pace quickened and individuals began circulating chain e-mails urging people to sign.

Mr. Mercer said he started it mostly as a joke about the Alliance's referendum policy, but "it's serious to the extent that it's an absurd idea, open to abuse."

On the campaign trail yesterday, Mr. Day ducked a question on whether the spoof undermines his party's position on allowing citizens to launch a referendum by getting a few hundred thousand names on a petition.

"I think it's a great show and I think it's incredible, and all I can say is whether we're successful on any of these changes, que sera sera," he joked.

Mr. Mercer said he just thinks the Doris Day idea, "has a nice ring to it," and he's not asking Mr. Day to change his personality or his gender.

"He could carry on leading his right-wing party as Doris, or the honourable Doris," Mr. Mercer said. "It might soften his edges. It could help him win some votes in the East.

"It could be the breakthrough he's looking for."