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Supporters wait for Barack Obama to speak at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, on November 2, 2008. Photo by Jauretsi.
Although that pesky thing known as "the law" kept non-citizens from voting in Tuesday's U.S. presidential election, it turns out that there was nothing to stop enthusiastic foreigners from showing up at a local campaign office and asking to volunteer. More than a few Torontonians did just that, including Alex Weinberger (a staffer in the Toronto office of New Democrat Leader Jack Layton) and me (a former speechwriter to a Liberal Member of Parliament) who took the Greyhound to Cleveland, Ohio, to spend the final days of the campaign working to turn that swingiest of swing states Obama blue.
In Glenville, the low-income, predominantly African-American east-side neighbourhood in which we were based, the challenge was never convincing residents to vote for Barack Obama: out of ballots cast at one local school, only three went to John McCain, compared to five hundred for Obama. Rather, the task was to ensure that enough people in the historically disenfranchised neighbourhood voted at all.
From all indications, that goal was met, but only due to the efforts of hundreds of volunteers—many or most of whom were from out of state—and a whole lot of cash. In the days leading up to November 4, houses of local Democrats and other Obama supporters—which in eastern Cleveland amounts to just about everyone—were bombarded with phone calls, literature, and knocks on their doors telling them for the dozenth time when, where, and how to vote. And although that kind of persistence might lead to irritation and anger in some locales, in Obama country it was met with warmth, enthusiasm, and, most importantly, ballots cast.
Said Weinberger on her election day experience in Glenville:
What shocked me the most was how engaged everyone was, and how excited everyone was. I mean, I've worked in enough elections [in Canada] and I've never seen anyone come out of a polling station that ecstatic to have just voted. I've never walked down a street on election day and had people yelling at each other like, 'Have you voted? Make sure you get out to vote!' I've never gone to pull the vote from a house and had someone say, 'You know what, they're not here. But let me just call them up,' right in front of you and find out if they'd voted. And people were doing that, and people were so excited. People were stopping me on the street and asking me if I'd voted. And I had never experienced that before.There is no way to know the extent to which our individual contributions made a difference on election day. But whatever the reason, Ohio turned a surprisingly convincing shade of blue on Tuesday, confounding sceptics who expected yet another bout of overwhelmingly long lines and crippling voting irregularities.
After watching the joy of the Clevelanders who cast their ballots for the first time and the volunteers from Texas to California to Connecticut who helped them do it, Canadians finally have reason to end their years of smug superiority and be envious of our southern friends' approach to democracy. It's an odd feeling, but at a time when interest in our own elections is at at a historic low, maybe what we need to turn things around is a little taste of the American Dream.
Photo of Barack Obama volunteers in Cleveland by Jerad Gallinger/Torontoist.
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Now that Obama is in. And everyone in Canada loves him, perhaps it's time we start thinking about joining the United States and becoming the 51st state.
Based on the demographic shift, the USA and Canada should become one very happy country.
Now that Obama is in. And everyone in Canada loves him, perhaps it's time we start thinking about joining the United States and becoming the 51st state.
Based on the demographic shift, the USA and Canada should become one very happy country.
My parents in Cincinnati told me they saw lines of people waiting to vote that stretched for blocks. Apparently it's the highest voter turnout since 1908.
Don't you mean 11th province?
I don't know about the province thing; they'll just steal all of Ontario's equalization payments.
its always fun to participate in the world's largest and most expensive reality tv show.
now only if we could get canadians to be so inspired and involved in Canadian politics (changing the "former" to "current")
Rosie Dimanno nailed it this morning. Yeah, Obama's a great talent and all that but a lot of his policies really, really suck (health care, death penalty, gay marriage, gun control, nukes, Afghanistan, education, etc). Harper will get along with Obama just fine, won't even have to pretend to like his policy agenda -- he really will.
Disclaimer: I fully acknowledge that Obama is a gazillion times better than McCain.
Remember that as past experiences show, politicains tend to move away from the campaign-specific rhetorics. Campaigns are designed for winning, not governing countries. The only question is: which way will Obama move?
Dubya moved in the wrong direction, of course, and against the tenets of conservative ideology (budget deficit, military interventionism). Obama's starting points (outlined fairly accuratly by Dimanno, a rarity for her), are not so great, IMHO --> BUT it remains to be seen what he will espouse as a president, not a candidate.
I do have high hopes for him, by the way.
How pathetic is our democracy if the only way we can think of getting people out to vote is to make political candidates into flawlessly branded celebrity-products?
very interesting to see a foreign take on the events, thanks! hope the US can gain some ground in turning our negative impact around soon.
" ...Rosie Dimanno nailed it this morning. Yeah, Obama's a great talent and all that but a lot of his policies really, really suck (health care, death penalty, gay marriage, gun control, nukes, Afghanistan, education, etc). Harper will get along with Obama just fine, won't even have to pretend to like his policy agenda -- he really will...."
Rosie Dimanno is a buffoon on the order of Sarah Palin.
The Canadian Liberals are divided on all the above mentioned issues.
Rather than risk a riot among party rank and file, they wiped their hands clean and tossed the Same Sex Marriage issue to the Supreme Court.
On the Death Penalty, the Liberal Ruling Elite refused to open the subject to debate fearing another public meltdown. As many as 45% of Liberal MP's are for the death penalty in certain cases ie: cop killers.
During the 13 years the Liberals attempted to run Canada, the Health Care system was subject to numerous budget cuts and basic neglect. Liberal MP's -- this actually applies to all MP's of any stripe -- could care less, because they can go to private clinics in the US as an unofficial part of their employment package. Plus they have their own private MP's and Friends clinic(s) in Ottawa. These clinics are NOT available to Joe Six Pack and his kin.
The Liberals spent 2 billion dollars on a gun registry that registered less than 7000 of the estimated 11 million * legal firearms in Canada. Canada also has the distinction of being the second largest small arms manufacturer in the world, after gulp, Switzerland.
Atomic Weapons? Under the last Liberal watch, Ontario Hydro sold millions of dollars worth of Canadian tritium to the United States and British governments. Liberals may be against the bomb, but they sure don't mind helping other countries build them as long the fees are paid in a timely manner.
Afghanistan. This was Liberal initiative.
Education. Having been a card carrying Liberal Party member in Canada for 25 years -- up until two years ago when I trashed my membership card in a paper shredder -- I don't recall any discussion -- other than meaningless rhetoric -- regarding education at any of the many Liberal Conventions I attended. Perhaps because Education is a provincial matter.
So Green Sulfur, you, like Rosie Dimanno may want to check your history, before you call Africa a country. Oh gosh, was that Sarah Palin who said that? Sorry.
You won't find many of the sort of liberals Rosie Dimmano writes about in the Liberal Party of Canada and certainly not among the MP's; they're too pragmatic for such claptrap.
If you want to meet real capitol L liberals -- of the sort Ms Dimanno day dreams about -- simply go to the halls of the CBC or the Toronto Star. As neither organization is accountable to the electorate, people who work there can say anything they wish. And believe it to be true.
* SOURCE: Estimated Number of Firearms Owners, and Households with Firearms in Canada - Firearms Research Unit, Canadian Firearms Centre, Department of Justice - June 2007
Never mind that Toronto has more muggings, car thefts, and assaults per capita than New York City!
Nationally, Canada's overall crime rate is 50% higher than the US; and 30 US states are safer than any Canadian province.
@warmflash: "Never mind that Toronto has more muggings, car thefts, and assaults per capita than New York City! ...Nationally, Canada's overall crime rate is 50% higher than the US; and 30 US states are safer than any Canadian province. "
Sources, please.
I went looking for the numbers last night but it's not clear Toronto/Canada and New York/US authorities are reporting on the same things. (It's also worth noting there are three cities in Toronto with crime rates almost triple that of Toronto.)
He may be citing this opinion piece in the National Post by David Frum from 2006, or this one from Newsmax. However, neither article says where its numbers come from, and both are from outlets with very conservative slants.
Probably more reliable would be this StatsCan report, which states that the U.S.'s violent crime rate is much higher than that of Canada.
New York City's 2007 homicide rate was 7.3 to our 2.0.
And in my last comment I meant in Canada, not in Toronto.
As an American citizen (born in Canada, by the way, to US parents), I can honestly say I've never felt as proud nor hopeful for this country as I do now.
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Sources are " Firearms Research Unit, Canadian Firearms Centre, Department of Justice - June 2007 "