It's astonishing and discouraging to see how easily fooled Canadians are by US politicians... very much like their gullible neighbors south of the border. While Canadian political life has taken a beating in recent times (mostly due to adopting a US style approach to politics favoring image over substance) they still have a better deal here than in the US. But they don't know it.

Following is a column from a local magazine, followed by the comments I left on the website.

http://seemagazine.com/article/city-life/city/ninja1113/

I Got An E-Mail From The President

Obamarama is still raging, and we hope it doesn't stop until things change. Like, really change.
Published November 13, 2008 by Fish Griwkowsky in City Life • Comments (0)

"I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there," U.S. president-elect Barack Obama wrote to millions of others and me in a mass e-mail last week, "but I wanted to write to you first.

"We just made history. And I don't want you to forget how we did it. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next."

Holy shit, he just might! That last sentence contains one of the most magnificent ideas using one of the most revolutionary uses of technology in history: direct communication from an incoming world leader. Spam you can get behind. As Bono said at a concert the night Bill Clinton first got elected, "Let's hope you're half the man we think you are."

The first glaring thing I noticed when Obama got elected was a sharp dropoff in my daily e-mails. To fulfil John McCain's greatest fears about not knowing exactly who had been contributing to the mixed-race candidate's campaign, I can safely say that there are people up in Canada who donated small amounts of money to Obama's campaign. Good-looking folks who, instead of putting — say, er — my address, used a fake one in the States.

But the thing about this American election was, like the two before it, this was successively the most important one in history. Further on the subject, it was the most internationally watched one, if only in terms of all-important optics.

Instantly, like it or not, the ethnic flavour of the new president made America less of a terrorist target from any number of agendas. So while it's true there are office pools about how long it will take some Klansman type whose wife either did or did not throw the TV out the window on Nov. 4 to try and assassinate the greatest community organizer in American history, certain arguments are now officially over. For example, Morrissey's lyrics that it's "where the president is never black, female, or gay" are suddenly as dated as the U.S.S.R. cosmonauts in Arthur C. Clark's 2010.

What I felt down on the streets in the U.S. was no different from what any number of you felt up here: relief. But also, a sudden sense of possibility. Global, personal — it doesn't matter. Hope, not fear. Issues like Guantánamo Bay, the bullshit ban on Cuba, rebuilding Louisiana, and even getting more spaceships on Mars all seem discussable again. By apologizing for his future mistakes, he outmaneuvered Bush as a gentleman by at least seven years.

But most importantly, via these e-mails, the man has a direct line into the attention of his supporters — people who have already worked hard to get him in place. He must use it. Must. If he manages to continue organizing and asking for help, for the poor, for the troops, for anything that could use help fixing from his people in great numbers, and appealing to people's decency instead of numb patriotism, well, America could really boast being the greatest country in the world. In other words, we could learn a lesson from them, in a good way. Damn!