Left behind in the debris

We saw the Washington Mall filling up early in the morning, with people finding ways to keep warm in what they quaintly call freezing cold weather. We saw the Obamas head for coffee at the White House with the outgoing US president. We saw them arrive at the Capitol for the inauguration ceremonies. We saw the swearing in, the inauguration speech, the inauguration luncheon, the moment when the helicopter lifted off and carried George Bush back to Texas.

It was very much like being a fly on the wall, because we were watching a new form of broadcasting, live streaming on the internet. We were sitting on a secluded hill in the middle of southwestern Nova Scotia, but we were very much at the heart of things. We attached a laptop computer to a flat screen and a set of good quality speakers and settled back to watch the event, without the interferences of advertising or babbling commentators.

Reports later said that live streaming of the event over the internet had been strained by the millions and millions of people who had tuned in worldwide, and that some sites had failed altogether. CNN, which we tried and found too jerky, shunted many people to a waiting room, and ran several minutes behind real time. We settled on C-Span, which provided clear, full screen coverage that ran along perfectly, with a minimum of commentary.

We accessed C-Span through LiveStation, a free program the user downloads, and one which also provides us with constant video news coverage from the BBC. None of this would have been possible a short time ago, and nor would it have been possible without broadband internet in our village.

We surprised ourselves with our intense interest in this event, which took place, after all, in another country. Barack Obama inspires not just us, but people around the world. From country after country there were images of smiling, weeping, laughing people. It is as if a long international nightmare had ended.

We didn't have the same interest the last time our own government changed, but that is partly due to the way we do things in Canada. We are a parliamentary democracy, rather than a republic. We separate the ceremonial head of state (the Governor General) from the political head of state (the prime minister). In the United States, those two jobs are rolled into the presidency, hence the pomp and circumstance.

Another crucial difference is that it doesn't really matter what Canada does on the world stage, at least to the extent that it matters what the United States undertakes. Because the US is so powerful, and because it has so badly lost its way in the past eight years, we, like others around the world, found ourselves to be profoundly hopeful as the minutes ticked to 12 noon and President Obama assumed office.

It matters very much to us what the United States does. We share the same land mass. We are friends and neighbours. Their economy affects ours (if you have an RRSP based on the stock market, just take a look at its performance lately). We sell things there and buy things from them.

At the same time, some of our finest moments have come when we consciously do things differently from the US. One recent instance when Canadians were proud to be Canadian was when Jean Chretien stood tall and said we would not join in the Bush invasion of Iraq. Some of the leaders we have respected the most have been those who like John Diefenbaker and Pierre Trudeau, pursued a foreign policy independent of the United States.

Brian Mulroney, who tried to be overly chummy with the US, was immensely unpopular when he left office. And so it is interesting to speculate as to what will become of Stephen Harper, who has made no secret of the fact that he admires the Republican way of doing things.

Harper is the polar opposite of Barack Obama. He makes one long for the progressive leadership of the Robert Stanfields and Pierre Trudeaus who have been such admirable figures in our history.

The swearing in of Barack Obama inspires a hope that is diluted by the uneasy feeling that our own government may be left behind in the debris of the Bush era.

Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com