Watching history unfold

“This is the first thing you need to understand about this country: nobody with this color skin will ever be president”
(My African American neighbor in Tallahassee (FL), his finger pointing to his own skin, as we were discussing the US democratic primary, in 1988 — I had lived in the US for one year, at that time)

I still cannot believe this is happening, and here I am, witnessing it. Maybe I am just getting old, but there is something truly extraordinary about this election, regardless of its final outcome. I cannot recall feeling so excited about an election. Nervous, shocked, angry, flabbergasted, desperate, many times. But this excited, never.

Too much center

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to surrounding conditions…
Unreasonable people try to adapt surrounding conditions to themselves…
Thus, all progress depends on unreasonable people.”
George Bernard Shaw

My adoptive country is headed toward a general election, in little over a month. For me, it is not only the first time in over 21 years that I get to vote in a general election, it will also be the first time in a country other than the one where I was born (and whose football team I continue to support in spite of recurring disappointments… OK, let’s not go there today).
I am rather interested in politics, and have watched fairly closely the Canadian political scene since I first moved here, six years ago. I am reasonably familiar with the ideological landscape and with the choices before electors. As it turns out, due to the electoral system currently in vigor in Canada (as in many other western countries), I, as well as many another voter, shall likely opt to cast a “strategic” vote, instead of expressing a preference most closely reflecting my political leanings.