From Canada:

"Thank you, Barack Obama, for transforming politics"

JASON REED/REUTERS


This positive force is starting to bring good things to the political system in Canada, too

Jul 04, 2008 04:30 AM
JOHN LASCHINGER

As our American neighbours celebrate their nation's birthday, politicians in Canada might be tempted to consider the transformation that appears to have taken place in the U.S. over the last 12 months and ask if those same forces could shape future politics in Canada.

A candidate for president has taken on the political establishment by refusing to accept donations from Washington lobbyists, refraining from using negative ads, voting and campaigning against the Iraq war and urging Americans to help him make real changes in Washington.

This transformation has propelled a relative unknown into the nomination of his party for president. Adding to the scope of the transformation is the fact that for the first time in U.S. history the candidate for one of the major political parties will be black.

But the magnitude of the change that has occurred does not stop there. Barack Obama's campaign has eclipsed all fundraising records and has motivated young and black voters, traditionally high non-voters in the past, to both show up at the polls and to part with some of their hard-earned dollars via the Internet to support him.

Before examining the possibility that this transformation might spread to Canada, it is important to examine from a campaign strategist point of view what brought about this historical change.

After directing campaigns in and outside of Canada, my experience has been that voters everywhere (Canada, the U.K. and new democracies like Kyrgyzstan) are driven by either positive or negative forces. Hopes and dreams battle fears and disappointment. The outcome of each election depends upon the relative weight of those forces as perceived by the electorate.

Looking at the U.S. campaign from Toronto, it is relatively easy to explain the emergence of Barack Obama. First, Americans (especially Democrats) today want change. Their country is in a very unpopular war, the economy is tanking under the weight of a subprime disaster, consumer confidence has been shaken to 1929-type lows and George Bush is the most unpopular president in history. No wonder Americans want change.

And second, along comes a candidate who embodies change and actually campaigns single-mindedly on it. (Hillary Clinton also represented change based on her gender, but she tried to campaign on both experience and change and this diluted message allowed Obama to be the more credible "change candidate.")

Could this type of change happen in Canada? In fact, we have already had one candidate produced by a transformation of our federal political system: Pierre Trudeau in 1968. At that time, Canadians balanced the disappointments of the Liberal government with the dreams and spirit that had been generated by Expo 67 Ð and came down on the side of dreams...."