A Canadian lesson for America

Author: Rosa Maria Young

It seems to me that for all our looking at the Canadians like if they were our not so advanced cousins, they could show us a thing or two. Especially now when we are running the US election of the Democrats nominee as if it were a battle: blacks against whites, men against women. And a little lost among that but not forgotten and sure to resurface during the general election, our immigration problem. And, what have the Canadians to do with all this?

Yesterday, watching the French news on TV I saw that the Governor General of Canada Michaelle Jean was paying an official visit to France from May 6th till the 10th. I dug a little into that and I found that the Governor is an immigrant black woman. She arrived in Canada from Haiti as a child and she has reached the top job of the country without fanfare or any Canadian feeling distraught by it. A triple score for the Canadians and something to think about for those Americans who still cannot bring themselves to vote for a woman or for a black man as a future president. My friends, we have much to learn from the Canadians.

Ms. Jean who is married to a white Canadian, himself an immigrant from France, has attended the ceremony in Ouistreham marking the 63rd anniversary of the Armistice, which was to be followed by a tribute to the Canadian soldiers buried at the Canadian military cemetery of Beny-sur-Mer.