Hummingbird604.com » American politics

The American Presidential election 2008 – A historic day, November 4, 2008

Raul — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:01:03 +0000

Today (November 4th, 2008) will go down in world history as a historic, hyper-relevant day. Admittedly, it is a day that holds a LOT of weight in the lives of Canadians. Regardless of whether you’re American or Canadian, I do hope that you’ll be voting or have voted in the upcoming elections (American President Nov 4th and Vancouver municipal election Nov 15th).

I am now comfortable with the fact that many, many Canadians (not dual citizens, but Canadian-only) will be paying attention to the US presidential election. Frankly, so will I. But right after it’s over, I plan to refocus (and draw attention) to our municipal elections.

Would I like Obama to win? For sure I would. That would be an Earth-shattering accomplishment, and one that I think will bring lots of positive changes to the US and the world.

The relevance of the American election for Canada

Raul — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:30:22 +0000

So I’ve been wondering about this point recently (and I recognize that I haven’t written much political stuff recently, with the exception of my posts asking Canadians for more interest in the Canadian Federal election – is it true that the American election is much more relevant for Canadians than the recent Prime Minister election? I sure would hope not. I understand where people come from when they say this, but truthfully – despite the economic and political (worldwide) power that the United States hold, and its inextricable relationship with Canada, I don’t think that the international arena (and particularly, the elections in ONE country) are supposed to be MORE relevant to its neighbouring country than the election of the one person who is supposed to lead the country.

For example, I can assure you that for Mexicans, the election of President Felipe Calderon and the comings and goings were WAY more important (and are WAY more relevant for Mexican society) than what’s going on in the United States, despite that it is its largest trading partner. I agree, this 2008 presidential election is going to be a watershed moment. This is a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see either the rise of an African American to the Presidency or a woman to the Vice-Presidency (with the chance that potentially, she could become the first female President).

But let’s keep things in perspective. Regardless of who wins the election, Canada will still have to deal with the decisions that the Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to take, and the domestic political and economic dynamics. Surely, these dynamics will be INFLUENCED but not DICTATED by what is happening in the United States.

The importance of voting in American, Canadian and Vancouver elections

Raul — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:30:16 +0000

One of the areas where my mother does research is in electoral studies (however, she studies elections in Mexico more than anything, although lately she’s been interested in Canadian elections). She was mentioning how important it was to galvanize people and make them want to go and vote.

It’s true that many, many people refuse to vote because they don’t think that their vote is going to count. I was reading some statistics on how many people have voted in recent Canadian elections and I recall a figure hovering around 64% or so (of the whole electorate).

The most recent election for President was the most contested in Mexican history and I can assure you that one of the reasons for that was precisely that a lot of the people who many people thought wouldn’t vote did indeed cast a ballot.

Even though I’m not American, I’m pretty darn sure I have American readers (and of course, Canadian) so I’d strongly encourage you to register to vote. Hat tips to Steve Jagger who tweeted this video (source: YouTube) where lots of US movie stars encourage viewers to vote.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UaRXvRwhOk&hl=en&fs=1]