Obama unites right, left

[akbacchus_BC]

Dear Fellow DUers:

I thought I would share this story with you that was in our Vancouver 24 hours (vancouver.24hours.ca). I tried linking the article but it did not work, hence I have copied the whole text here.

Just like you, we here are so excited about Senator Obama/Biden winning. Just a few more hours to wait and history will be made.
Go Obama/Biden

"Obama unites right, left
By IRWIN LOY, 24 HOURS

She wants Gregor Robertson to be Vancouver's next mayor. He's doing everything he can to make sure Peter Ladner wins.

Heather Deal and Mike Meneer may be political opposites in Vancouver's municipal scene. But when it comes to the U.S. election, the transplanted Americans share the same goal: Electing Barack Obama.

Deal, a dual citizen who came to Canada in the 1980s, is a city councillor running in Robertson's centre-left Vision Vancouver party. Meneer moved with his family to Canada last summer and is working on the campaign team for Ladner and the centre-right NPA.

But both are also lifelong Democrats who brought their politics with them when they moved north of the border. Both cast absentee ballots for Obama in the U.S. presidential election.

"I've voted ever since I got here. It's something I was raised with," says Deal.

She admits it's "funny" she and Meneer could be political opposites here in Vancouver, yet also support the same man for U.S. president.

"I think all of our parties are further left on the spectrum here than they are in the states," she says. "But my affiliation with Vision perfectly lines up with my Democratic Party affiliation."

Meneer defines his politics as socially progressive, fiscally conservative.

"It's a compliment to Vancouver," he says, "and to the way Canadians approach politics, that you could have a Mike Meneer and a Heather Deal together on a lot of things and then, in a municipal election, have different opinions."

Both Deal and Meneer have been active in Democrats Abroad, the international wing of the U.S. political party. Its organizers and those of its Republican counterpart, Republicans Abroad, believe votes from some 6.6 million Americans living outside the U.S. could play a role in deciding the outcome of Tuesday's election.

There are at least 25,000 U.S.- born citizens living in Vancouver alone. Many vote in key battleground swing states where a shift in only a few percentage points could determine where the electoral votes go.

"In an election where there's a lot of uncertainties and it could be really close, every vote counts," Meneer says.

Both he and Deal will be watching Tuesday evening to see if their votes help put Obama in the White House. After that, however, it's back to Vancouver civic politics. They have their own campaigns to worry about."

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. A TRUE "uniter" NOT a "divider"

Unlike a certain somebody who shall go nameless...............