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Politically minded
I am perpetually amazed how the view on US politics is changing depending where are you looking from.
From Russia democrats and republicans looked pretty much indistinguishable. Their differences trifle and in international relations hardly noticeable.
In Canada we got used to Canadian politics, obviously. That most of the time looked safe and boring comparing to, say, Russia, but also we could see democracy working more or less for people and not against them. Occasionally there happened soap opera events, and we were excessively diverted. US politics became understandable and exciting. Democrats started to look normal, republicans started to look kind of strange.
Now, I was amazed, how much the whole Canadian political discourse is leftier than US one. Stephen Harper from here looks kind of more liberal than Barak Obama. I am also surprised how many our acquaintances here are republicans or drawn to republicanism - all well-educated middle class people. All emigrated from former USSR as Jewish refugees in 90s or later, as professionals.
and I feel very socialist and very Canadian.
I also feel Russian, but Russian politics depresses me to no end. I cannot use words acceptable in a polite society to talk about it.
From Russia democrats and republicans looked pretty much indistinguishable. Their differences trifle and in international relations hardly noticeable.
In Canada we got used to Canadian politics, obviously. That most of the time looked safe and boring comparing to, say, Russia, but also we could see democracy working more or less for people and not against them. Occasionally there happened soap opera events, and we were excessively diverted. US politics became understandable and exciting. Democrats started to look normal, republicans started to look kind of strange.
Now, I was amazed, how much the whole Canadian political discourse is leftier than US one. Stephen Harper from here looks kind of more liberal than Barak Obama. I am also surprised how many our acquaintances here are republicans or drawn to republicanism - all well-educated middle class people. All emigrated from former USSR as Jewish refugees in 90s or later, as professionals.
and I feel very socialist and very Canadian.
I also feel Russian, but Russian politics depresses me to no end. I cannot use words acceptable in a polite society to talk about it.
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And yet... My heart and my brain and my opinions and my values are American. And 99 times out of 100, I'd vote Republican.
(The only exceptions are handguns and death penalty. There, I'm Canadian)
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I still marvel how I moved from not caring to confusion to feeling Canadian politics-wise.
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I totally agree with your impression that Canadian politics are to the left of American in general; I'm not sure if I'd describe Harper as being to the left of Obama, though. (Perhaps, since each of them is stuck working with the status quo in their respective countries, Harper governs to the left of Obama, but I still have the impression that ideologically Obama would be more left-leaning than Harper on a variety of issues, esp. social justice and environmental issues. Otoh, I'm not a political junkie, so I might just be wrong!)
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Canadian politics are not boring of course for those involved, but the stakes are never that high. Even the corruption scandals seems tame - but I am glad that the scandals break out even about small corruption deals. It's healthier.
and the whole Belinda Stronach in politics story - if it were a novel, i wouldn't believe it :)