Something strange has happened in Canada. Last week Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, endorsed Barack Obama for the American presidency. It may seem odd, giving an endorsement in a foreign executive campaign, but really, it just shows how much attention Canadians (80% of whom would support Obama if given the chance) have been paying to your election.
Our own recent election had the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history. Yet Canadians are glued to the US campaign, watching it as anxiously as many Americans. Our bloggers are writing, the comments sections of Canadian media websites are full of emotionally charged debate between your standard Canadian centrist and our relatively new Fox News fueled wingnuts and Canadian pundits are writing article after article.
See below for the Globe endorsement and other thoughts.
Toward a more perfect union
The United States has been much diminished under the presidency of George W. Bush, its economic clout lessened, its underlying principles of civil liberties and natural justice worn down or violated, its military bloodied, and its international reputation weakened to the point that it is now seen, albeit not always fairly, to play a mainly negative role in the world. The U.S. is in need of a sea change - not merely of the chance to put out of office the Republican party, which has, through its failure of competence and leadership, badly shaken the confidence of Americans and the world. This is also the opportunity for an epoch-defining moment, one with the potential to propel the U.S. forward, ever closer to the noble purposes set out in its founding documents. Let us hope, then, that on Nov. 4 Americans support Barack Obama for president.
The fact of the matter is that Canadians have largely benefited from the Bush years. As the wasteful and short-sighted Bush cronies ran the American economy into the ground, we happily shipped you our oil and kept our budget in the black, as your debt reached ever more unthinkable amounts. The end of Republican rule could indeed be a bad thing for us. Many centrist Canadians, myself included, are hoping that Obama's misguided talk of unilaterally opening up NAFTA is just populist rhetoric. So I get the feeling that Canadians are not thinking about what is best for themselves, but rather what is best for America and the world and we believe that is Obama.
Nobody can ever be truly ready to be U.S. president. It is a high office that carries an enormous burden of responsibility. But Mr. Obama keeps showing that he can be equal to it. He embodies the hope that a dispirited, injured, but still great country can regain its form. With his election the U.S. should once again come to be seen for what it has so often been, a force for good in the world.
More than that, a victory for Mr. Obama would be a historic step toward what he called, alluding to the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, "the unfinished business of perfecting our union." His election would finally breach the racial divide that has marked the country since its founding.
As Canadians, and residents of other middle-powers, especially in Europe, see themselves more and more as 'global citizens', the thought that Americans might just join us, or, more accurately, emerge to lead us, is incredibly exciting. For the past 8 years Canadians have watched as Americans seemed to move in an opposite direction, clinging to guns and religion as Obama said. As much as that may have made centrist Americans cringe, it was a thought that much of the rest of the planet shared. However, the excitement coming from the Obama campaign suggests that, maybe, average Americans are not as out of touch with the rest of us as we had feared. The Globe ran a second part to their endorsement and had this to say:
But a more nuanced look at the record shows that Mr. Bush has not taken his country as far off the track of civilized behaviour as his critics claim. That means that getting back on track should be easier for his successor – which is good news both for the United States and the rest of us. The world needs U.S. leadership. It simply needs a better leader. That is why the rest of us should hope that Barack Obama is elected president on Tuesday.
So, as your campaign comes to a close and as your GOTV efforts begin, know that your cousins to the north are waiting with bated breath. Obama has run a near-flawless campaign and the wingnuttery's shrieking is exposing them as the lunatics that they are (I've watched, astounded, as more and more right wing pundits seem to suggest, essentially, that only landowners should be allowed to vote). We look forward to Tuesday when, hopefully, you not only choose Obama, but also choose to retake your position as the leader of the free world.