It occurs to me that, looking as the election does right now, it will be a miracle/catastrophe for the Republicans to win this one. And oddly, the country least happy with the change is our very own neighbor, Canada.
I mean, think of it from their view. Canada, oh liberal Canada, is going to be screwed regardless. Either it gets another Republican in the White House, or the economy gets a kick in the balls. All those far left Democrats who hopped on the plane to Canada in 2000 and 2004, rather than live in a country ruled by the Republicans? Remember them? Almost of them are coming home. So Canada is going to see the immediate departure of thousands (tens of thousands?) of highly skilled, generally well-to-do, culturally-similar, tax-paying residents leave, just at the time of the world economic crisis. And let's not bring up NAFTA (again)...
And to add insult to injury, Canada just elected a conservative government. Oh, the irony.
Australia, on the other hand, can expect its fortunes to shift, once all the Conservatives start landing. Even if the Democratic candidate is less supportive of some Australian foreign policy interests (like Global Warming, Australia's likely to lose out on that), their economic fortunes look surprisingly good. The Australian housing market looks to be on steroids, with the promise of thousands/tens of thousands of new residents, the government's budget office is already planning for the reams of new revenue that the expected American residents will pay, and unlike Canada many of Australia's guests won't be looking to the Unions first thing.
Of course, this could all change in four years, if Change doesn't deliver, but hey, that's what you get when you make out-of-country voting so easy in Australia and Canada.
I mean, think of it from their view. Canada, oh liberal Canada, is going to be screwed regardless. Either it gets another Republican in the White House, or the economy gets a kick in the balls. All those far left Democrats who hopped on the plane to Canada in 2000 and 2004, rather than live in a country ruled by the Republicans? Remember them? Almost of them are coming home. So Canada is going to see the immediate departure of thousands (tens of thousands?) of highly skilled, generally well-to-do, culturally-similar, tax-paying residents leave, just at the time of the world economic crisis. And let's not bring up NAFTA (again)...
And to add insult to injury, Canada just elected a conservative government. Oh, the irony.
Australia, on the other hand, can expect its fortunes to shift, once all the Conservatives start landing. Even if the Democratic candidate is less supportive of some Australian foreign policy interests (like Global Warming, Australia's likely to lose out on that), their economic fortunes look surprisingly good. The Australian housing market looks to be on steroids, with the promise of thousands/tens of thousands of new residents, the government's budget office is already planning for the reams of new revenue that the expected American residents will pay, and unlike Canada many of Australia's guests won't be looking to the Unions first thing.
Of course, this could all change in four years, if Change doesn't deliver, but hey, that's what you get when you make out-of-country voting so easy in Australia and Canada.