We are sure that ninety nine percent of our readers celebrated Tuesday night’s President Barack Obama’s victory south of the border. And so did we.

Every US Presidential Election since Franklin D. Roosevelt is deemed crucial given the pre-eminence of that nation. But what makes this one different is a watershed, where an individual who does not fit the dream of the American stereotype, hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of gaining this high office.

Four years ago the nation was in such deep financial crisis, one of the worst in its history, with two wars and the bleeding of billions of dollars from the treasury to maintain the excessive combat readiness, that Barack Obama’s “Audacity of Hope” offered a way out and the public accepted the challenge. They elected him.

But the enormous scrutiny, challenges, and a sharp partisan divide in the House, took its toll. Never had a leader put up with so much rancour, in part, that he was a Black Man, and that he was not from the old boys’ network. For more than a few, he was not even from the right religion. But he persevered to shepherd the nation away from the brink, to instil the stirrings of recovery.

Obama has been consistent all the way, never losing faith in himself and those who worked around him. He has slowed the fall, ended the wars, introduced a comprehensive health care for 30 million who had none before, and now we are witnessing a small resurgence in industry. This augurs well not only for the United States, but for Canada and much of the rest of the world.

This, we believe, is why he was re-elected for four more years. When the public re-assessed him during this long, arduous, expensive campaign, they were looking at, and listening to a man whose feet were firmly planted on the ground. There was realism all the way, and not fancy rhetoric, and as far as we can ascertain, neither was there a game of smoke and mirrors.

What can we expect of Barack Husain Obama in the next four years? We don’t expect magic, and neither do we want a show. A solid plodding all the way will do, thank you. Now that he is free from further party politicking (US Presidents can only serve two terms), he can begin to build the base of a statesman, to get national forces to move beyond partisanship.

Indeed, the man he defeated, Mitt Romney said as he graciously accepted defeat, that it was high time for America to close ranks, to move away from divisions, Democrats and Republican alike.
What does all this mean to us, outside those borders? As examples are set, we too will emulate. This is the way it has always been. But there is something greater than all this; it’s the individual, Obama himself and his actions that will inspire other individuals elsewhere, that “Yes we can!” This we believe will be his true legacy.