Electoral College map of Canada
Apparently, Ann Bartow is in Canada this weekend, and she’s had the same experience that I’ve had all weekend: Canadians love them some Barack Obama, and have been spontaneously expressing their happiness to me all weekend.
When I approached customs and immigration and said “Bon Soir” upon my arrival in Quebec Wednesday evening, the man took my passport and said, “You won your election yesterday?” (en Anglais), in a way that was more of a statement than a question. Not “Were you happy with the election results?” or “Did your candidate win?” No–a politely hopeful declaration that “you won.” Then, the waiter at dinner Thursday night heard us speaking English (me and an Anglophone Canadian scholar), and told me that she was so happy about our election and that she wanted to vote for Obama. And, both of the French and English-language CBC channels are almost all-Obama, all the time (except for a little coverage of Canadian news, and the upcoming provincial election in Quebec next month.)
Maybe now I won’t have to tell people any longer that I’m Canadian when traveling outside of the U.S. and Canada? What a concept.
Historiann 
Tom’s heard from a colleague of ours who’s in England on sabbatical that he has never, ever felt so welcome as an American as he has in the last few days. Amazing what a little goodwill can do for foreign relations, eh? And we don’t need to hire Karen Hughes to do it because our President can’t be bothered to, either. Yippee!
LikeLike
Toronto for me, and EVERYBODY is so thrilled, eh?
LikeLike
Yes–it’s really an odd experience to have people volunteer their good will! (It was probably only because Canadians are famously polite that they didn’t volunteer their opinions about George W. Bush all of these years on my across-the-border jaunts!) Thanks for letting me know where you are/were, Ann. Quebec is all of a sudden being buffeted by artic winds and sleet!
I hope you had a good time with ej at your place, Rose.
LikeLike
Yes, now we can smugly offer Canadians our sympathy for Steven Harper being their Prime Minister.
LikeLike
As soon as the results were confirmed, I e-mailed my closest friend in the European country where I do my research. “Can I come back now?”, I wanted to know. He seemed just as thrilled with the news as I was. But I seriously don’t think that’s possible.
LikeLike
This Canadian can’t help but wish you’d been in Quebec last week when we had almost record high temps!
And guess what – from what I hear, Stephen Harper runs somewhere to the left of Barack Obama! Can this be true?
LikeLike
Actually, I can imagine the atmostphere. Oddly enough, in England after 9/11 it was the same. DIdn’t last, of course.
LikeLike
Your customs official’s remark reminded me of one of the cleverer quips in the West Wing election episode. When Toby was asked for the White house reaction to the failed house bid of the philandering (democrat) son in law of the president, he responded quietly “we’re calling it a victory for the district.”
I also think that the post 9/11 sympathy in Great Britian would have lasted longer had we not endlessly compared the terroist attacks to London during the blitz, yes the atacks were terifying and horrific, but they were nothing like the blitz, ex pat retirees, in NY, who had survived the blitz, said so, at the time, and were quoted in the NYT.
LikeLike
I read your blog more than I comment, but thought I would de-lurk to say that I’m in South Africa at the moment, and there has been non-stop coverage here. People I meet ask me if I “did the right thing.” It’s pretty great–South Africa has always had a more nuanced view of America than some other places, due to historical alliances between African Americans and black South Africans, but it still feels like a weight off my shoulders.
LikeLike
Hi all, and welcome to Liz–I hope you’ll comment again. Thanks for your comments. It was a long travel day from the St. Lawrence River Valley all the way back to the dusty (but warm and sunny!) ranch that is Historiann HQ.
I had a very interesting conversation en francais with my cab driver this morning who wanted to talk politics all the way to the airport. He was happy about Obama’s election, but asked, “I thought that Americans were happy in the Clinton years. Why didn’t Hillary Clinton win the nomination?”
LikeLike
The common theme of many conversations I had was, “Obama will be a good President, like Bill Clinton was.” But nobody was too surprised that Americans couldn’t bring themselves to elect a woman, sadly.
LikeLike
I’m doing research in England and last week a random woman came up to me at a bus stop to congratulate me on Obama’s victory. She was considerably more excited than I was, and I was excited. Many newscasters, journalists, and talk show hosts were in near tears and were saying things like “We’re so proud of America.” Headlines include, “Welcome back, America.” But perhaps the most touching thing I saw was on the metro in Paris over the weekend when what looked to be relatively poor black men were jubilant over Obama and just talking enthusiastically about him to anybody who would listen. The change has been shocking, to be frank.
LikeLike
I do a customer service job, and I really wish Canadian customers would stfu about Obama and stop wasting time congratulating me on having elected an inexperienced one-term senator with ties to very bad people to our presidency.
LikeLike