A New Hope

The BBC news reports of the Obamajubilation this evening featured an American man in London expressing his delight at the election results. "Now I won't have to pretend I'm Canadian when I travel abroad" he exclaimed.

Growing up as a Canadian I have always resented Americans. For the fear they made me feel - as they threatened to test their nuclear weapons over our country, and for the Gulf War that unfolded before our eyes on our television sets. For their ignorance of us - even though we were such close neighbours, and for their imperialism over our culture.

As I left home to see the world I wore my flag, as all Canadians do, to avoid being thought of as American. 

Last night - for the first time - I felt that things could be different. That America could actually become all those things it prides itself on being. For this is the most exciting and inspiring political change in my lifetime - bar the fall of the Berlin Wall. To have a true leader who has the potential to unite and change the world. 

Maybe Obama got in at the right time - as a different choice for a nation on the brink of collapse and fatigued under the incompetence of Bush's administration. But for now, lets assume that America is reaching its tipping point.

Perhaps fittingly it is bonfire night in London. Grey and misty, with fireworks exploding through the night - a bizarre celebration and reminder of a revolutionary from the British past. But maybe tonight it is in honour of a new revolution - a new hope for everyone.