Sorry, Jeff Roberts, this is not very insightful writing.
First, already it is becoming tiresome to read or hear about Canada and Obama.
Nothing of consequence has happened yet - for America or Canada -except the experience of an exciting election and inauguration.
That excitement has mostly to do with the uncommon mix of talents and intelligence and energy President Obama possesses, and it is made more intense after the results of eight years of Bush's foul government.
Canada sometimes has bad government, but it does not have, and has not had, the true horrors of Bush: war crimes, torture, economic disaster, and a lot of nasty, underhanded stuff.
Were an aboriginal or other minority politician of Obama's grace and intelligence to appear, I think we would gladly embrace him or her, Harper and Ignatieff both being poor leaders with poor ethics.
But where is he/she?
Such people are rare anywhere, even in a country with ten times our population.
I should add, how can people not be "marginalized" when they insist on living in remote settlements, too small to provide adequate facilities of any kind, from education to work opportunities?
At the same time, the population of these poor places is growing fairly rapidly, making any facilities even less adequate in future.
It is, quite simply, a formula for guaranteed disaster.
