As a Canadian I am not sure if American’s are aware of exactly how closely the world watches American politics. Watching an American election is a hard thing to do as a non-citizen. The video’s that came out during the campaign of some McCain supporters who were so obviously ignorant and full of hate are baffling. America is undoubtedly the most powerful nation on earth, and it is hard to understand why when we see such ignorance, short term thinking and outright hate. It is often hard to know if we should be hoping for the USA to fall and let another world power rise, or if we should dare hope for change to be possible within the USA.
Today, Americans have shown us why the USA is a world leader. Voters in the US have given us reason for hope. Reason to believe that American will not turn inwards, letting itself be ripped apart by hate and the religious extremism it is claiming to fight elsewhere.
For Canadians, I believe many of us will wake up with a political hang over tomorrow morning with an acute awareness of how far we need to go in our own country. With our own federal election not even a month behind us Canadians will now have to give up our smug progressive mantle. It is absolutely no longer possible for Canadians to believe ourselves more progressive and forward thinking than our southern neighbours. We will for the next four years be reminded that we voted for war, we voted for the status quo that is rewarding the rich on Bay St. and drowning the towns and manufacturing economy of this country. We voted for an administration that advised the world not to invest in the strongest provincial economy in the country. We have for the first time seen Ontario need equalization payments. We have not looked forward, we have not looked for hope, we have not looked for change.
Nevertheless we can learn a lot from Barack Obama starting today. Barack Obama did not become president overnight, it was a long road. That road was about mobilizing people, the people who did not come out to the polls last time, the people who did not think that politics was relevant to their daily lives.
For the next 2, 3, 4 years Canadians need to strive for the first time since JFK to be more like the Americans. To instill hope in our grassroots and to empower them with the possibility of change.
Thank you, our American neighbours, for being our international leaders.
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