The pointless discussion about fine details aside, Michaelle Jean is still Governor General of Canada, and despite her status as mostly a symbolic leader she still holds the post.
I happen to respect representative democracy in the style of a Parliamentary system like Canada and the fact that Parliament was able to nominate her to the post, so I accept her for what she is. Canada has a black and female leader before the United States.
And yes, it will be a very long time before someone like Obama would be able to become PM because Canada has a very small African-Canadian population, and an extremely small percent of that small number bothers to get involved with public life and politics. If the factors are because a smaller percent of the population doesn't partake in political discussions by voluntary choice, I hardly think Canadians should worry that they don't have an Obama.
Canada never had the same level of slavery entrenched in such a large swath of its lands. So there isn't the same struggle to overcome as there was in the United States or more recently in South Africa. Canada did have some stories of indentured servitude and what you can call slavery in its very early days, but the numbers are relatively few, and it was indentured servitude where the slave could eventually buy their freedom... Not an entrenched labor camp slavery system where you shipped millions of unwilling people to a foreign land to beat them into submission for the first half of your nation's history.
I think those outside the US who are in awe of Obama's story need to put it in context with an overall world history. Nelson Mandela's story is quite remarkable as well... The world has a lot of stories of overcoming hardship. This is an American story, but it most certainly isn't "only in America" where possibilities occur.
I find Canada interesting on US relations as it seems a large percent of Canadians want nothing to do with the US and defend Canadian identity with a very big passion, while many don't care either way, then there is this unique category of Canadians who want to be American and loathe how they view Canada to be some second rate society.
To be fair, the same thing is true in the US, as many US citizens would rather live in Europe or Canada for the social identity differences among other factors. But in Canada I find most interesting the stories of people who claim the US is the greatest thing since the dawn of mankind over some silly situation. And this doesn't pertain directly to anyone in this discussion, I'm talking about people I've met and talked with before. Yea, I'm sure the US is the greatest thing in the world because we created MTV and have Target. Yea... Right. And then certain people rave about culture in Hollywood, despite half of American TV being produced in Canada. LOL American and Canadian culture is intertwined like no other western power, but man I find some of the arguments people make to be funny. Canada is still very different from the US on many levels, culturally and politically.
If I were a Canadian (and I'm still working on it), I would cherish what is ours as a nation, and really feel comfortable with a history that is proud and multi-cultural on a more real level.
This is a phrase I've said before, and I will repeat it until the end of time. There is more East St. Louis in America than Manhattan.
The greatest thing the United States is best at doing is creating a cartoon of a lifestyle within some pretty wretched conditions to pretend that wretched side doesn't exist. This "cartoon lifestyle" is actually one of the most uniquely American attributes I think virtually no one talks about.
Besides, I don't think many Canadians realize how fundamentally religious the United States still is. Maybe this forum does, but not many Canadians I meet in general life, they always think of Manhattanites or something... Obama isn't going to change the religiousity of the US, on the contrary he's embraced it to get his message across. He's expanding the Office of Faith Based initatives that Bush created. He invited Rick Warren to be his invocation speaker.
America is still America, and the world needs to do away with any intense, irrational hatred from the Bush years and it also needs to get rid of this irrational love of Obama. That's all I am saying.
There are plenty of things that annoy me about Canada as well, but they are more superficial. Like Torontonians who think they don't have enough money to build a subway system.
For crying out loud, here in Pittsburgh the city was in bankruptcy and the state took control of the city's finances a few years ago. During that period, they initated the North Shore Tunnel connector to dig the $435 million subway tunnel to the north shore across from downtown, yet Pittsburgh was already bankrupt and being administered by the state of Pennsylvania. LOL
Toronto has enough money to build a subway if it wants it. Just get into McGuinty's political bed and coax some funds out of him.
But I'll leave this Transit City vs Metrolinks discussion for the other sections of the forum.