As a Canadian I spent the majority of my life idolizing America. Sure Canada has free health care and cheap education, but we don’t have s’mores Pop-Tarts, loaded baked potato Pringles, or pumpkin spice Oreos.
While the food prospects in the United States still outweigh anything (with the exception of poutine and donairs) that you’ll find in Canada, I can truly say that I have never been happier to be Canadian as I am this year.
First of all, the US elections just go on for so long. Let me put this into perspective for you, late in August of 2015 Canada began to promote the candidates for the upcoming election, around this time news of the “upcoming” US election began to trickle across the border as well. Two months later on October 19th 2015 Canada held its election and welcomed its new prime minister – and yes you heard correctly, Justin Trudeau has been labeled a “hottie.” With the Canadian election over the US election gossip crossed the border in full force, and then appeared to never stop – a year later and I’m still hearing about the upcoming election!
Timeline aside, this election has been like watching a sitcom! As someone who will not be directly affected by the results of the election, it’s partially hilarious, and partially terrifying how the candidates for this years US election have presented themselves, most notably in the case of Trump.
When I first heard news that Donald Trump was running I thought it was one of those political jokes, kind of like Tuxedo Stan, a cat, running for Mayor of Halifax (yes it’s a real thing, check it out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/18/tuxedo-stan-_n_1891950.html). As the months drew on, and Trump still hogged space on my Facebook timeline, I began to realize that this was not a joke – which brings me to stage three of the US election. WHAT ARE PEOPLE THINKING? I just can’t comprehend how this happened, or how it’s being taken seriously. As someone on the outside looking in it is very clear that this needs to be some kind of twisted joke because if it’s not I’m really questioning peoples judgment.
On the other hand though, I am excited to see how this has caused so many people to stand up for women’s rights and make a real push to see a female president enter office.
Either way, all the drama associated with this election, the childish behavior of some, cough-trump, of the candidates, and the general length and cost of the US elections has left me feeling very privileged to come from a country where our elections do not dominate the social scene for very long, where our candidates take the elections, for the most part, seriously, and where we get to vote for candidates that we truly think would do our country good.