The Obama-mania that gripped America during one of the most exciting elections in U.S. history is beginning to simmer again in the run-up to the president-elect’s inauguration on January 20.
One Canadian planning to attend the inauguration is Glyn Lewis, 25, a Simon Fraser University graduate who works for a non-profit organization in Vancouver.
You could say Lewis has a personal stake in seeing the new president get sworn in: he spent months on the ground in the U.S. during the campaign giving his all to help Obama get elected.
“I guess I was really tired of the way things are being done in Washington and disgusted by the impact the Bush decisions were having in the rest of the world.... I felt that I wanted to go down there, and I knew that I couldn’t vote but that I could help and coach other people to do so,” he says.
After working on the campaign in the early days in Iowa in September 2007, Lewis returned to Canada and co-founded Canadians for Obama. This resulted in a group of 35 volunteers going to the U.S. and helping out in the states of Washington, Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia.
A pivotal moment for Lewis was when he walked into the campaign office in Des Moines, Iowa for the first time and saw a huge map on the wall showing the various points around the world from where young volunteers had come to help Obama get elected.
“I knew what this meant and I knew the powerful significance of what this map represented. Young people from around the world saw this campaign as a different kind of campaign and also a great means to make a significant difference,” he says.
One Canadian planning to attend the inauguration is Glyn Lewis, 25, a Simon Fraser University graduate who works for a non-profit organization in Vancouver.
You could say Lewis has a personal stake in seeing the new president get sworn in: he spent months on the ground in the U.S. during the campaign giving his all to help Obama get elected.
“I guess I was really tired of the way things are being done in Washington and disgusted by the impact the Bush decisions were having in the rest of the world.... I felt that I wanted to go down there, and I knew that I couldn’t vote but that I could help and coach other people to do so,” he says.
After working on the campaign in the early days in Iowa in September 2007, Lewis returned to Canada and co-founded Canadians for Obama. This resulted in a group of 35 volunteers going to the U.S. and helping out in the states of Washington, Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia.
A pivotal moment for Lewis was when he walked into the campaign office in Des Moines, Iowa for the first time and saw a huge map on the wall showing the various points around the world from where young volunteers had come to help Obama get elected.
“I knew what this meant and I knew the powerful significance of what this map represented. Young people from around the world saw this campaign as a different kind of campaign and also a great means to make a significant difference,” he says.
