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Well everyone else is doing it...
Nov. 6th, 2008 12:19 pmMy (Canadian) take on the whole US election thing: Yes, I think it's great that Obama was elected. With the amount of influence that the US has on Canada, and considering we just voted in the Conservatives again, I'm glad that I won't have to worry about things like more war and Sarah Palin. (According to the radio many people do not know that Canadian troops are in Afghanistan, but they are. And someone who can be pranked so badly by someone from Quebec should not be VP. She doesn't even know who our Prime Minister is. Sheesh!) I like the idea of a combination of US liberalism with the relaxed Canadian conservatism that we have. However, there's something that has been coming up every once in a while that has got me thinking and that I just can't ignore.
I don't understand why it's such a huge deal for the US to vote in a man who is half black. Or to have a potential presidential candidate who is a female. People keep talking about how ground-breaking and historical it is. But in Canada we've had a female prime minister. And our past two heads of state (that's the Governor General, who represents the Queen in Canada) have been female, one of Asian descent and the current one is black. And I hear little to no talk about these things. People don't say that having a Green Party leader who is a woman is a historic event, even in Canada. (I'm not so naive as to think that other people are really interested in the Canadian Federal election.) So is it the fact that it's happening in the US that makes it ground-breaking? Or do people really think that these events have never occurred in history?
On a non-political note, pictures of my Halloween costume really will be forthcoming, but all our weather lately has been bleak and not conducive to photo-taking. Also, I am a bit swamped with homework, which really sucks. I don't WANT to write a paper on uranium mining. Moo!
Edited to add: I don't want to offend anyone with my opinions or questions. I just want to better understand the viewpoints of others. And all the media attention that the US election has, combined with all the discussion about it at school raised some of these questions for me. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a part of a country that has such a widespread effect on the rest of the world. It's really staggering.
I don't understand why it's such a huge deal for the US to vote in a man who is half black. Or to have a potential presidential candidate who is a female. People keep talking about how ground-breaking and historical it is. But in Canada we've had a female prime minister. And our past two heads of state (that's the Governor General, who represents the Queen in Canada) have been female, one of Asian descent and the current one is black. And I hear little to no talk about these things. People don't say that having a Green Party leader who is a woman is a historic event, even in Canada. (I'm not so naive as to think that other people are really interested in the Canadian Federal election.) So is it the fact that it's happening in the US that makes it ground-breaking? Or do people really think that these events have never occurred in history?
On a non-political note, pictures of my Halloween costume really will be forthcoming, but all our weather lately has been bleak and not conducive to photo-taking. Also, I am a bit swamped with homework, which really sucks. I don't WANT to write a paper on uranium mining. Moo!
Edited to add: I don't want to offend anyone with my opinions or questions. I just want to better understand the viewpoints of others. And all the media attention that the US election has, combined with all the discussion about it at school raised some of these questions for me. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a part of a country that has such a widespread effect on the rest of the world. It's really staggering.
