Barack Hussein Obama, an African-American and son of a goat-hearder from Kenya, was sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States of America.

Read that sen­tence a few times and savour its de­li­cious­ness as it rolls off your tongue. In a coun­try whose iden­tity was shaped in large part by slavery, racism and a blind fear of the different, this is truly a mo­men­tous and his­toric occasion. Only a cold, cold heart could not be moved by the events of the past three months or tear up dur­ing the in­au­gu­ra­tion ceremony.

Is the hype jus­ti­fied? I think it is. Since his election, Obama has shown more con­cern to­wards the prob­lems af­fect­ing his coun­try than George Bush, Jr. has in the last year of his pres­i­dency. “Dubya” didn’t care any­more, and it showed.

No one in their right mind be­lieves Obama can or will af­fect change right away. He in­her­its a coun­try crip­pled with debt, rid­dled with de­spair and des­per­ate for change; he def­i­nitely has his work cut out for him. What tran­scends all the promises he set out dur­ing his cam­paign and in his in­au­gu­ra­tion speech is hope. A hope that things will improve. Because frankly, they can’t get any worse.

As a Canadian, I watched with envy as a na­tion joined to­gether in wel­com­ing their new President. Next week, our Sleeveless Leader, who treats the coun­try like his per­sonal fief­dom, will un­veil a bud­get that will more than likely lead to a third elec­tion in as many years. (My math may be off but that’s ex­actly how it feels.)

So, to my friends south of the bor­der — con­grat­u­la­tions! I hope you don’t mind our star­ing - we just want a lit­tle hope of our own.

Photo: REUTERS