Biden's Victory and a New American President

Hi everyone,

Hope you are doing well. I’ve had two things on my mind: Trump will be out soon and Biden will be in. I hope that we have a more calm relationship with the United States, and I’m grateful that Biden was elected. Besides the obvious that he isn’t Donald Trump, I want to focus on his qualities that he can offer the nation (and the world). For example, he was the former Vice-President to Obama for eight years. In fact, I think that is uncommon, have other American presidents served as Vice-President before they became President? That means that he has proven leadership experience and exposure to the executive power for nearly a decade.

People have asked me if I’ve been following the debates, and to be honest, I haven’t . Although I took an American politics course in university, I prefer focusing on Canada and the world, and think we already have too much U.S centered news and mainstream media influencing the country. However, our two countries are so intertwined with a common language, shared border (our only neighbour), and similar cultures. In fact, I’ve been asked by Russians and Kazakhs if we have the same currency as well (NO). Today, I want to discuss these sub-topics related to U.S politics:

1. President of the United states is also president of the world

2. international Relations- Russia

President of the United states is also President of the World

I read somewhere that “the president of the United States is also president of the world”, which demonstrates that the politician elected in that position has control of not only the country, but also global influence. This influence has a strong impact on Canada: while some countries may be surrounded by several other nations, we only have one. Then, imagine if your neighbour also happened to be the most powerful country in the world. Most of the Canadian population lives along with American border, in addition to us being trade dependent on the United States. Because of the shared language and common values and commitment to democracy, Canadian-American relations are strong but unequal. It’s often described as a big brother-little brother relationship; however I think it’s more accurate to call it a mother-child relationship. I can’t think of any other country that Canada is close to like it is to the United States. For example, while Kazakhstan and Mongolia center themselves in the middle of super powers like the United States/Russia/China, Canada is aligned solely to the United States and for the most part, quite economically, politically, and socially dependent not unlike a child.

Justin Trudeau, our current Prime Minister, had a father named Pierre Trudeau who was also the Prime Minister of Canada. He discussed Canadian-American relations and compares the United States to an elephant and Canada as a mouse:

“Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
Pierre Trudeau

I think that demonstrates the extent Canada is affected by the United States; most people I know here have been following the U.S election. It also demonstrates the dominance the U.S has over Canada. Did you know that although Canada is the second largest country, the U.S have ten times our population? From the U.S-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement to NATO military exercises, our two countries are intertwined. The actions that the U.S undertake would affect Canada, and that doesn’t go both ways equally. An elephant may not notice a mouse (even if it’s right next to it), but the mouse is “ is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

international Relations- Russia

I was reading this article here, which reported on Russia’s reaction to Biden’s victory, that authoritarian regimes around the world much preferred a Trump victory while democracies welcomed Biden to the post. I’m interested in seeing how relations will stay the same or change under Biden’s leadership. For example, trade sanctions against Russia, relations with China, etc. The reason why I thought about this is because of an article from the Globe and Mail: “Even if Joe Biden wins, there’s no going back to a pre-Trump world.” To what extent does a leader determine the country’s path, even after he is no longer in that position?