I think we do. The reason is in the Oval Office, his name is Barack Obama and he is the 44th president of the United States.
As we Canadians look across the border on this Independence we see the brightest star in the firmament is the new president. Like us he is a moderate who favours conciliation over confrontation. He is, as well a multilateralist and a multiculturalist. He pursues nuclear disarament and a health care system like ours. He stands up against climate-change deniers. And he is not blindedby any sense of American superiority or m uscle-flexing Manifest Destiny or fatuous conceit that he is carrying out the will of God.
Ptesident Obama rises above old American prejudices. Being a politician with an independent mind and an international
perspective -rare qualities in a U.S President – his leader5ship is based on broad global interests rather than narrow domestic biases.
Obama will drive the hard-liners nuts - and that will have Canadians lustily cheering h i m on. America has a long-standing tradition of exaggerating foreign threats.
C anadians would have voted for Obama over McCain by a margin of 80 to 20.
Canadians have good reason to celebrate Obama – now the leader of the free woHappy Indepe dence Day.
President Obama rises
Neil are you not just a wee bit overenthousiastic? As Mme Buonaparte would have said about her Emperor son: “pourvou qué ça doure!”. ( Hope it lasts, in case some did not get the Cosrsican accent).
I think we have a reason to celebrate. We could be neighbors to a giant that is much less peaceful than the US.
Neil:
on the issue of Obama we surely know where you stand!!
You can certainly consider yourself a Quebecois, Neil, but you had referred to “French-Canadians” of which you are not.
You’ll have to educate me as to why my virulent opposition to Bill 101 somehow means that my feelings towards French-Canadians leaves something to be desired. Indeed, as I have written here many times, I blame Ottawa (representing a majority of English-Canadians) for the continued existance of Bill 101 much more than I do Quebec.
And, as I’ve said many times here, I’d rather live in an independent Quebec that respected individual freedom than a Quebec within Canada that didn’t.
I’m a separatist and I want Canada to end…and that’s what my new book is all about:
http://www.whycanadamustend.com/index.htm
.