I woke up this morning and I didn’t feel cynical. I felt good. I felt hopeful. There’s work to be done, and it’s time we started doing it.
I put off writing this post all morning. I was having a hard time thinking up some clever way of encapsulating the significance of Barack Obama’s victory. So I’m not going to try. Many people, much more clever than I, will be flooding the interwebs with more elegant prose than mine. Rather, I’m going to ask a question:
Where is the Canadian Barack Obama?
I mean, when do we get our turn to be inspired? We face the same challenegs- an ailing planet, an aimless foreign war, and economic turmoil. But a quick look around Canada’s political landscape reveals a collection of politicians, some competent, others not, the rest scary…but no figure of Obama-like proportions.
And don’t try to tell me we already had our Obama. Trudeau was not the same thing. It was 28 years ago, he messed around with our civil rights, and left us with a bitter legacy of malignant Western conservatism. I also won’t accept that our parliamentary system doesn’t allow for inspirational figures. The United Kingdom-the common ancestor of every parliamentary system everywhere- somehow produced Tony Blair. Perhaps not of the same historical import of Obama, but a darn site better than the vast snorefest we have here in Canada.
The answer, I think, is that Canadians are far too willing to accept mediocrity. As a middle power defined by a kind of practical centrism, we often mistake the middle path for the middling one. Our leaders our unispiring because we don’t ask them to be anything else. But if today has shown us anything, it’s that big dreams can pay big rewards. Americans aren’t afraid to go for the gusto. And sometimes, they tragically overreach. But last night they voted for a big idea and got a great President.
So c’mon, Canada. Let’s not hand the reigns of power to another bowl of cold oatmeal. Next time around, what say we find someone worthy of being our leader.
Maybe we should be wondering why aren’t all politicians Obama? After all, I think we’ve just got used to politicians being pretty tame and ordinary.
I think the “Obama is American’s Trudeau” comparison is kind of interesting. Besides them both being popular figures when they emerged, nobody can say what kind of a president Obama will really make– I’m inclined to think he’s going to be pretty ordinary– which will be good (except for comedy writers) after 8 years of Bush’s antics.
Trudeau, for better or worse, re-made this country while most politicians are content to play it safe. Maybe in 4 or 8 years we’ll know if Obama was a Trudeau or a … Stephen Harper?!
Agreeing with Zoltan. Trudeau did, at least, stand for things. My queasiness about today’s Canadian politicians is that they’re all playing it so safe, trying to have everything both ways. I hate that all political ads are essentially trying to scare you about the opponent instead of inspire you about the candidate – because to inspire something, you’d have to say something solid, and god knows that might bite you in the ass when you’re talking to a different demographic later on.
Inspiration tastes lovely, but I’m not yet convinced that Obama is going to be filling. I don’t care so much about his lack of experience, but it does make it awfully hard to know where he stands (if he does) on anything.
I continue to hope that both Canada and the U.S. will find politicians who can actually stand for significant change, and the will to do what they believe is right, even when it’s unpopular. Then, dammit, the people had better be ready to embrace someone like that instead of running back to their cold-oatmeal-types.