While Americans and a lot of Canadians get ready to drink champagne tonight, we in Vancouver need to brace ourselves for the onslaught that is about to begin tomorrow in the civic-election campaign.

That's because it's the 10-day homestretch and the only clear chance that the city's hard-workin' but generally ignored candidates will have to get your interest before voting day Nov. 15. They're going to be fighting hard, not just because the race is close in Vancouver -- along with a few other hot municipalities in the region -- but because a lot of people are saying is that there might be record low turnouts for this civic election throughout the province.

Between federal elections, provincial byelections and the much more exciting American race being played out in every media outlet available, local races just haven't stood a chance. No one is expecting the kinds of line-ups we're hearing about in the U.S. today.

But as of tomorrow, Vancouver's civic candidates will finally have a clear field and they are going to be doing everything they can to get your sorry butts down to the polls. Speaking of which, the first advance poll is also ... tomorrow. If you're going to be out of town next Saturday, this is one of your advance chances to become one of the 313 people who elected the city's leaders.

The true sign war is about to begin. According to Vision Vancouver, they will have 11,000 signs out in the field, those uber-moderne-looking campaign signs they have in greens and blues that make me think of either 1. The Canucks 2. The ICBC drivers' centre or 3. The Olympics.

The Non-Partisan Association says they will have 8,000, those retro 80s-looking white boards with Yankee-themed red and blue writing announcing candidates' names in giant letters.

And the Coalition of Progressive Electors, with yellow/green-accented text-dense listings of all 11 of their candidates, are putting 3,000 out in the field.

We saw the outbreak of true campaigning with the revelation Sunday that Vision Vancouver candidate Gregor Robertson had an unpaid TransLink ticket, an issue that generated almost much coverage as homelessness in the city. This is why campaigns are never predictable.

What is going on behind the scenes is that media types like myself are spending half our days chasing down other tantalizing tidbits, most of which turn out to be unverifiable or untrue.

In the past 48 hours, I've had people contact me to say

1. The NPA is "push polling" voters, calling their houses to ostensibly ask how they feel about issues but then dropping in positive comments about NPA candidate Peter Ladner and disparaging ones about Robertson. The NPA office says no, that's not happening, must be people mixing up just general voter-identification calling (where, yes, callers will talk up their candidate) with actual polling (where they're not supposed to).

2. Vision Vancouver has hired paid canvassers from the non-profit ACORN, a US-based non-profit that lobbies on behalf of lower-income people, to go door-knocking for its campaign. The VV office says no and ACORN hasn't returned my call.

3. The NPA's Suzanne Anton is running media ads that studiously avoid mention of Peter Ladner -- a sign that it's "every candidate out for himself" and that the NPA campaign is disintegrating. I haven't checked on Suzanne's ads, but certainly there have been all kinds of signs that the NPA is running a campaign that's more focused on individuals than the party. That's quite unlike last time, where almost all publicity was branded with a photo of Sam Sullivan and his "united team."

4. A Vision Vancouver campaigner refused to make space on a table at a candidates' meeting for the party's supposed ally, the Coalition of Progressive Electors. No confirmation on that.

Of course, it could be worse, like Victoria, where there are several homeless candidates for mayor and council. Three have been arrested to date for camping in the parks, and at least one all-candidates meeting was so chaotic that people left in dismay.