Obama for Parliament, Eh?

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jan 31, 2008 5:50PM

The United States isn't the only country that is having federal elections this year. In March a by-election will be held in Toronto's Toronto Centre Riding. And our sister site, Torontoist has been posting a semi-regular column by their Environment Editor, Chris Tindal, who is running for parliament as the Green Party candidate.

With Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama racing headlong into Super Tuesday, it seems that Canadians have already made up their mind. On January 5, Tindal posted excerpts from Obama's victory speech in Iowa on his campaign site. Liberal candidate Bob Rae followed suit the next day, posting on his campaign blog that "[l]ike many of you, I was inspired by the passion and decency of Barack Obama's speech after he won the Iowa primary. You will enjoy seeing it yourself - and reflecting on what it means for Canada." When NDP candidate El-Farouk Khaki posted Obama's profile on his Facebook page, Tindel wrote

I'm not sure what to take from all of this. I think the main message is that there's clearly a genuine desire for change, hope, non-partisan cooperation, new ideas, and vision (all things that Obama has emphasized), and each of the three of us feels that we're best positioned to deliver that. We'll see how it turns out.

Whether American Democrats will agree with Tindal's assessment will be decided shortly. In the meantime it seems that Toronto's progressive community have already picked their president.

Obama picture via his Flickr stream