“I won’t fuck us over, I’m Mr. November.” The free world breathed a
huge sigh of relief as these words finally came true and America
elected Barack Obama as its 44th president. The line — cleverly co-opted from The National’s album Alligator
— had been looming large in my mind in the weeks leading up to election
night. As hopeful as I was, nothing is for certain in American
politics, especially where electronic voting machines are concerned. A
nation where both Richard Nixon and George W. Bush were re-elected is the kind of place that might choose John McCain after all.
This pessimism made the prospect of covering a Welcome Back America party an anxiety-inducing venture. But the folks at Spacing
magazine were optimistic enough to start a Facebook group inviting
everyone in the world to celebrate America’s return to clear-thinking
and rational judgment under the leadership of their soon-to-be first
black president. So I too would be at Yonge-Dundas Square, for good or
ill, to be a part of whatever happened.
I can’t even count the
number of video screens blaring advertisements into the concrete
expanse of the square, and yet none of them have so much as a ticker of
information about anything newsworthy. I know all the shows playing on
CTV, but nothing about the biggest election in recent history. Oh,
wait, the CTV screen just flashed to a CP24 update that says something
to the effect of Obama is leading over McCain. Wow. I feel so very informed.
Apparently the organizers’ efforts to convince the companies to change
the channel for a few hours
have gone unnoticed. Fortunately, I’m in regular text message contact
with an election night house party in the west end.
By 9:30pm,
CNN is reporting Obama at 174 electoral votes and McCain 69. The numbers are looking
good. The relative undecidedness of the election, however, means that
very few people gathered in the square are here for the celebration.
But after a few unsuccessful attempts to suss out some opinions, I chat
with a group of people who are somewhat disappointed by the sparse
turnout thus far. According to one attendee, Jason, the reason they came, “because
you never see this kind of thing happening for a Canadian election.
There’s nothing for our election except at the Longest Yard. And I
don’t think I’ve seen it for any other American election.”
I
spot a young woman with “Obama Baby” written in black marker across her
forehead and cheeks. She’s struck up a conversation with the Japanese
guy who has been wandering around the square waiting for the party
since before even our photographer arrived. And soon we’re joined by
her two friends — similarly scrawled upon and no less enthusiastic
about the imminent Obama victory.
The more I talk to people, the
more I feel like an ill-prepared party host as everyone asks when the
rest of the people are going to show up. All I can offer is election
updates, which are coming faster now that more than half the country’s
polls have closed. Soon my role is altogether unnecessary as a crew of
flag-waving (both US and Canada), sound-system toting revellers stride
across the square, proclaiming via megaphone a succession of distorted
exaltations and party-starting banter. This would be the Newmindspace contingent, headed up by an animated
Trevor Coleman and a dude in union blues slugging from a matte-black
magnum of champagne.
Over the bass-heavy pulse of their
deafening dance track, I speak with a mother-daughter duo, Day and
Robin, who are members of Democrats Abroad and have lived in Canada
since coming here from the US 13 years ago. Robin talks about the
supportive sentiment for this election she has witnessed here in
Canada, like seeing Obama’s face on t-shirts all over Kensington
Market. She puts the interest in perspective, saying “I kept hearing
like, 'Why can’t the rest of the world pick the US president because
they’ve done that for so many other countries?' There are people here
that care, definitely.”
As I walk out of the sonic assault to
scrawl a few notes my phone starts buzzing again and I check the
message: “Obama wins.” I call back to confirm and get the magic
numbers: Obama 297 to McCain’s 139. Within what seems like only a few
minutes, Yonge-Dundas Square becomes considerably more crowded and
the small Welcome Back America gathering suddenly feels like a party.
The Newmindspace members make the formal announcement over-top the
thumping beats from their high-powered portable sound system and an
ecstatic cheer fills the air. Within half an hour, a few hundred
Facebook invitees, election junkies and curious celebrants are deep
into an unprecedented outpouring of support for the next American
president, Barack Obama. Conga lines form and splinter off into
clusters of ecstatic dancers, while the ratio of Obama t-shirts
increases considerably (and not just because of the dudes selling them
either).
I manage to pull Coleman away from the action to get
his thoughts on the evening. Stashing the bag of assorted beers under
the bench on which he’s perched, he offers a philosophical
consideration of What It All Means: “I think it’s fantastic. I mean
Obama is going to be a president; he’s not going to be a demigod. But
the thing is, you can’t elect a machine [and] you can’t elect a
demigod; you have to elect a person who has to be a human being. I feel
like if someone’s going to have to decide whether we go to war over
something, Obama’s the guy who’s going to do it because it’s the right
thing to do, and not because it’s politically expedient. Abraham
Lincoln said that when Canada is ripe it will fall like an apple into [America's] hands. So as Canadians, we have to admit that we’re living on the
doorstep of this unparalleled power in world history. That power can be
a force for good or a force for evil, and it’s been a force for evil
for a long time, and Obama is the change.”
With these thoughts
in mind I drift through the crowd, amazed at the sustained energy of
the celebration. And finally, the reality sinks in: Barack Obama
actually won. He is Mr November. And he didn’t fuck anybody over, at
least not yet. As I ready myself to leave, I notice someone had arrived
with a life-sized cardboard cutout of Obama and everyone was scrambling
for photo ops with the thing. Soon, the President Elect’s likeness is
elevated above the throng of people gathered around the sound system,
which now projected a laptop feed of Obama’s acceptance speech.
I couldn’t help but see the image for what it was — a façade. I only hope that it held no symbolic significance.
Photography by Alyssa K. Faoro
More election coverage: It's such a perfect day