Jason C. McLean

After listening to Barack Obama give his presidential acceptance speech last night, I can’t help but feel happy for the states and at the same time confused as to how they got things right, or at least better, while Canada seems to be stuck in a right-wing rut.

I’m well aware that Obama’s nothing close to the revolutionary or socialist (if only the republicans were right about that one) that is needed right now, but he’s a hell of a lot better than what the US had for eight years and may even prove to better than Clinton, who in my opinion was just a corporate exec who was good at making progressive-sounding speeches.

Obama may have been headed down the Clinton road, but maybe, just maybe, with another depression looming and people scratching their heads over how they had allowed someone like Bush to steal two elections and visibly set the country back a few decades, progressive voices might be able to convince Obama to make a left turn and bring about the change he promises. Now that’s a pile of hope if there ever was one.

No matter how he turns out or what he does, at least he’ll sound intelligent explaining it. I recommend watching or reading his speech from last night, at one point it even brought a tear to my eye. Also, if you haven’t already, I suggest taking a listen to his speech on race relations, it’s one of the smartest and most honest speeches from a major North American politician I’ve heard in a while.

Meanwhile in Canada, $300 million dollars later, we’ve got a Conservative minority government with the Liberals in opposition followed by the Bloc and the NDP. Essentially, Canadians paid $300 million to have something we had before for free, a Bush wannabee in office. At least in two months, there will be no Bush for him to take orders from.

It might seem off the bat that we’ve fallen behind, but if you look closer, it becomes apparent that Canada is just as progressive as it ever was and in some ways more so. First off, at least smaller parties do get noticed and our debates are not limited to two competing corporate candidates. If that was the case in the states, then things would be quite different.

There were also some truly great things that happened in the last Canadian election, namely Thomas Mulcair of the NDP holding onto the Outremont riding, a riding that up until last year had been in the hands of the Liberals for pretty much ever. This is also a personal victory as I live in the riding and for the second time in as many years, the candidate I voted for actually won, which is something that doesn’t happen that often these days on the left.

The NDP picked up seats overall, too, largely at the expense of the Liberals, which is fine by me. Maybe now people on the left or center-left will start seeing that they have a chance and the Liberals will stop splitting the progressive vote.

Stéphane Dion is probably a nice guy and a way better choice than Ignatief, and is probably a nice guy, but his party seems hell-bent on shifting away from the left (even though they were only there socially to begin with), which makes Harper seem normal and center, instead of the ultra right-wing western separatist Reform Party joke that he is.

Looks like the states may have finally gotten their joke and realized it wasn’t funny. Next time, it’s Canada’s turn.

And in Quebec, looks like we’re going to have our second election in as many years…keep ‘em coming!