President Barack Obama

To the American people, I extend to you what is sincerely the most heartfelt and incredibly enthusiastic congratulations from your Canadian neighbors on the election of Barack Obama to the office of the President of the United States of America. I know I do not speak for all Canadians but I can assure you I speak for most of them, given the core message from an unprecedented flood of emails that CBC Newsworld began receiving shortly after 11:00 PM Eastern.

President-elect Barack Obama inspired a lot more people than the American public throughout his extraordinary campaign, during the primaries and the general election: he inspired untold millions of Canadians, from coast to coast, who were drawn to his fully inclusive grassroots movement to reach across party lines and cultural divides to bring people together, united in a cause common to all: the healing of a nation and re-igniting the hope of her people, with a message for the world to not give up on America yet, that she really can be a force of good, domestically and abroad.

I am not ashamed to admit that when the west coast numbers came in and the announcement was made that Barack Obama had just been elected President, my heart soared and my vision blurred as I burst into tears of inexpressible joy. "They did it," I cried, "My God, the American people really did it." I sat there transfixed, watching Obama and his family walk out on stage for his acceptance speech, my breath hitching in my throat, overwhelmed that it really was an African-American family standing there accepting the American people's decision for them to move into the White House. It was a shockwave that circled the entire globe.

And for the next hour I shed unrestrained tears of happiness, seeing the faces of those gathered at Grant Park in Chicago, the dancing and singing and cheering, the hugs and smiles, the tears rolling down Rev. Jesse Jackson's face—and especially listening as select CNN contributors offered their thoughts on this historic moment, beginning with a tearful Roland Martin, "Obama is going to be sworn in on January 20th, 2009," he noted quietly, swallowing hard. "2009 will mark the 100th anniversary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Obama got his start in politics in Springfield, Illinois. It was a race riot in Springfield, Illinois, that led to the creation of the NAACP."

"It's a great country," Bill Bennett said. "It's a great country and I hope he's a great President."

"I went back to look at the last speech that Martin Luther King gave back in 1968," David Gergen said, picking up a piece of paper. "It was the day before he was assassinated, and he said, 'I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land'." Gergen put the paper down, continuing, "And it seems to me, and for an awful lot of people in this country—especially for African-Americans—that Barack Obama is part of the Joshua generation, and Martin Luther King was our Moses. We're much closer to that now. We haven't ended our prejudice, but there's something about this evening and this election that I think has made an awful lot of people feel that this is the Joshua generation—we can reach something we never thought we could reach forty, fifty years ago."

"I went and looked back at the Constitution, and the first sentence talks of our desire to form 'a more perfect union'," Gloria Borger said. "We haven't done that, but we're still striving. And I think only the least gracious among us—no matter what your political philosophy—only the least gracious wouldn't say that this is a watershed moment for America."

I wiped the tears from my eyes and could not agree more. For the first time in decades, I was proud to be neighbors with the United States of America. I look at President Obama as emblematic of truly great things to come for that great nation striving to form a more perfect union.