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August 19, 2009
E-mail a friendYOUNG VOICES
Canada Hearts Obama
For a certain generation, at a certain time in their lives, if you felt a certain way about a certain someone that you knew, but didn't know quite how to say it, there was really only one thing to do: You made them a mix tape.
You'd put your favorite songs on there to tell them a little bit about you, and how cool you were, and then you'd put some songs on there to suggest—ever so casually—the thing that you wanted most to say, usually “Oh gosh, I just think you're the greatest…” Or something like that.
Nowadays nobody bothers with mix tapes anymore. Mix CDs even seem to have fallen out of favor. Now the delivery vehicle of choice for those oh-so-delicate messages is the playlist.
Can I tell you a secret? Canada really really likes Obama and is making him, like, the most awesome playlist ever.
It's kind of like one of those really trendy car insurance quotes commercials. You know the gecko for Geico? Obama is just that hip!
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which is Canada's version of NPR, is in the process of putting together a playlist for the president elect. The songs (49 of them from north of the 49th parallel… get it?) will be nominated by listeners, and selected by an online vote.
The votes have been pouring in since the beginning of January, and the winners will be announced on January 20th when the playlist is presented to the new president. For weeks now, people have been calling and emailing in their picks for songs to tell Obama about Canada and how they, as a country, feel about him.
As a Canadian citizen I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I do happen to really like Obama, and would like the opportunity to tell him so. On the other hand, I'm a little concerned this makes us look like that awkward 14-year-old girl with a crush on the most popular guy in school who is just totally out of our league.
So now the question is, when he comes over, like, should we ask him if he thinks we're cool or whatever?