Mr. Obama Goes to Ottawa

You know you're going to have quite the day when you get an email from a friend and Canadian government bureaucrat entitled "Obama Day! Obama Day! Obama Day!" before 9 am. To make an understatement, President Barak Obama's trip to Ottawa was the talk of the town. Heck, it was the only talk in town since the trip was announced before the inauguration in January of this year. As I stated to my friend's email "This is so Ottawa...so small town-ish!" He very accurately responded "Actually it's so Canadian - we're so insecure! External Validation!"


Then again if you are a foreign leader such as Obama, and have an 82% approval rating in Canada, one might expect quite the reception.

Thanks to the internet kindly provided by my employer for "research purposes" I indulged in a day of live streams of the event via the CBC's website. I too reveled in hearing the lunch menu for the visit expertly read by Peter Mansbridge....I couldn't believe he was doing it either.

Reporters in Ottawa gushed about the American President and enjoyed the glow of Obama. "People are running across the lawn on Parliament Hill just to catch a glimpse of the President. I mean this is a politician! We just don't see this in this country!" CBC reporter Keith Boag exclaimed.

And he's right. We don't regularly see that sort of thing in Canada.

In fact, I have postulated that Stephen Harper's singular mission in life seems to prove true Marshall McLuhan's theory of Hot and Cool media. Harper is one Hot man, on the very Cool medium of TV. Obama...he's Cool - so the TV thing works out well. Thank goodness Obama had the smarts to tell Harper to go out and wave to the adoring crowd. Gawd, our leader is a dork (a Hot dork, in the McLuhan sense).

But I do really hope the Canadian media is taking notes on this whole Obama thing. As I have tried to make clear in every entry I write, both countries (and the two cities of this blog) have a lot to learn from one another.

And after a week in which I became embarrassed by editorials, appearing in the Globe and Mail, with such sexy titles as "Obamania is great, but Canadian prudence trumps political charisma everytime," I hope that today's showing of LUV toward the President will act as a reminder that Canadians should not be afraid to aspire to leadership (and yep, even charisma). I think an injection of personality is exactly what the doldrums of Canadian politics needs.

Now, considering the depths of despair that the US economy finds itself in, I too think greater regulation, careful planning and wise investing (including lower risk) is a wise move for a country and an economy. But really...can't we jazz it up a little too? The author of the article above equates charisma with economic failure...now that's a little much.

And we can see beginning elements of that. I have to give it to Harper today actually. He did end up looking the elder, experienced statesman today. Not so Hot. Slightly more Cool. His messaging about "Canadian security is American security" at the mutual press conference was...well...awesome. Really. Awesome. Messaging that was so good that Harper forced Obama to respond to him on it. It was highly responsible of Harper, and a reassuring message for Americans (in and out of government).

So it appears there is Hope after all. Just remember it took an American President in Ottawa to remind Canadians of that.