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Canada and the US Election

© David Newman

Canada's eye on the US Elections.

On Tuesday Night, the United States of America will choose their president, as well as judges, Representatives, Senators, County Clerks and god knows what else. As a future political scientist, elections are of great interest to me. I tend to follow all elections in Canada, (Alberta will vote on November 22nd). Internationally I mainly check out the British General Elections, and the French Présidentielles. There were recent elections in Afghanistan and Australia. I read a bit on that. But as with most Canadians, the biggy is the U.S. Presidential Elections.

There are many candidates for President: Bush (Republican), Kerry (Democrat), Nader (Independant), Cobb (Green) and blah blah blah... but really, given the unfortunate electoral system in the United States, this will be a race between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry.

Canadians will look at this elections for many reasons:

1) Canadians care what happens south of the border. It may be unfortunate for those Nationalists among us, but we depend greatly on the United States and what happens there, affects us. So, it goes, who leads the country is important.

2)The US Election last time was so bizarre in its outcome that Canadians are wondering if anything fun will happen again this year.

3) Canadians don't like Bush. In general, Canadians would prefer to vote for John Kerry in the elections. Bush has been a president that has been hated and mocked in Canada. Kerry doesn't get that high a rating here either though, but if we had a vote, he'd probably win.

4) Canadian people have spoken out in the streets of Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Littlesmalltownville against the War in Iraq that President Bush has led. Canadians showed much pacifism and probably hope Bush will be out, as they fear more wars will come under Bush.

The thing is some argue, that when trade is considered, Bush would be better for Canada. I'm not sure, I couldn't care less really, since I don't support either of them; they are both too bellicose for me, which is the issue most important with Canadians it seems. With Millions in Canada, I protested against the War in War in Iraq form late 2002 to mid 2003; and against Missile Defence more recently. These are the main foreign policies that concern me: War and Missile Defence.

I believe Bush is wrong on the war issue, but Kerry's alternative: multilaterism, is hardly a viable alternative for me. After all, just because more countries occupy Iraq, doesn't mean that its legitimate. I haven't heard anything on Missile Defence from Kerry that suggests that he will scrap the programme.

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