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I think we’re all glad that the suspense over the coveted electoral benediction of Barack Obama is over. It’s been a question that has had many Canadians on “pins and needles” (whatever that strange idiom really means) for weeks. Would it be for Singh, or May, or Bernier, or Scheer? Who could tell?

Or, and this was an outsider’s bet, would it be for the fellow who came to earth on third base, blinded by his self-confessed “white-privileged” existence, with a taste for blackface when he was a mere urchin of 29? Certainly the consensus was that the most highly regarded, even reverenced, progressive in the whole world, would fret a little at tossing the manna of his approval on so déclassé a performer.

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But hey, this is politics, and what’s a little boot polish between friends, as long as they are united under the glorious banner of global warming.

What’s a little boot polish between friends?

It was therefore a great coup for Justin Trudeau to win the cherished Obama endorsement. This probably means a landslide for Mr. Trudeau. We Canadians are notoriously obliging, and courteous even to a fault. So I cannot imagine even the most passionate Scheerite or fundamentalist Greenist, now that Obama has graciously instructed Canadians in the matter of our election, doing other than setting aside their real and personal preferences, and yielding to the superior judgment of the former American president. (Obama also made it clear, as is his way, that there is no worry — if you vote for Trudeau, you can keep your doctor.)