A Canadian watching, and Hoping

I live in Vancouver.

I cannot vote, volunteer, caucus, campaign or donate.

But I sure can hope.

I can hope that Barack Obama wins the Presidency this fall.

There was a poll put out in the last week that showed an overwhelming majority of Canadians prefer Obama over McCain. As of now, your current President isn't running so hot, shocking eh?

George W Bush has run contrary to pretty much everything we as Canadians identify with, such diversity, human rights, peace, etc. So to say the least, Canadians, if we had our choice, en masse would choose someone the polar opposite of the cowboy.

That is why Barack Obama needs to win this election.

All the time there are news cycles about the candidates running well in this county, in this state, in this region, but this whole election goes farther than that.

The United States, and whoever is the President, exerts a huge amount of will over the way our foreign policy and economy is directed. 80% of our trade goes your way, we are principal partners in NATO, allied in a war in Afghanistan, sacrificing Canadian lives for goals the United States set.

So goes the US, to a large extent goes Canada, and Britain, and Spain, and Italy, and Russia, and China, and everyone else.

The world sets its watch to the US, and you need to show, as a nation, that the past 8 years were an aberration, a mistake, that the America George W Bush has made you out to be is not the nation you are.

A vote for Barack Obama does that. It is the first and major step in healing the wounds and divisions Bush & Co have brought upon us all. If he is elected, the US, to an extent, gets a clean slate, a fresh start, and an opportunity to show that all of us outside your borders can start to trust you are in it for the right reasons.

If it’s John McCain though, it is going to be much harder to believe that the America we’ve seen in this century isn’t the one that’s here to stay.

In about 8 months time, the world is going to set its sights upon the US, to see if we can trust you to set that watch, and I hope, for all of us that don't have a vote, that those who do use it with us in mind, at least a little bit.