Perhaps the one great legacy of George W. Bush is the fact he helped make it possible for a black man to win the presidency of the United States.

To be fair, Obama was by far the better of the two presidential candidates. He won 52.5% of the popular vote as compared to McCain’s 46.3%. He won a huge majority in the Electoral College (349 to 162) and he generated the highest turnout of U.S. voters in history.

Exit polls on Tuesday showed that 72 percent of voters gave Bush low marks for his performance as president while Obama received strong support (68%) from young and minority voters – 98% support from the black community and 67% from the Hispanic community. He even picked up 86% of Hillary Clinton’s supporters.

Obama's victories included wins in Ohio, which has backed the winning presidential candidate since 1964, and Virginia, the former bedrock of American Confederacy and a state that hasn't backed a Democratic presidential candidate in 40 years. In California, Obama won 61.2 % of the vote, in Illinois 61.5%, in New York 62.1%, in Vermont 66.9% and in the District of Columbia a whopping 92.9%.

Obama was also victorious in the key battleground states of Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Florida. Many will recall that Florida and Ohio were the two states that gave Bush his respective presidencies in 2000 and in 2004.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden the day after the U.S. election, President Bush characterized Barack Obama's election victory as a "triumph of the American story" that fulfilled a dream for millions of people and made every American proud.

Bush’s speech focused on the historical significance of the victory by the 47-year-old African-American senator from Illinois. "No matter how they cast their ballots, all Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday” Mr. Bush said.

“This moment is especially uplifting for a generation of Americans who witnessed the struggle for civil rights with their own eyes," he said. "And four decades later, to see a dream fulfilled. Voters chose a president whose journey represents a triumph of the American story, a testament to hard work, optimism and faith in the enduring promise of our nation."

Hello, Mr. Bush this election was not about race, it was about age, it was about judgment; it was about the economy, it was about war, it was about change and it was about your record. It was also about the "vitality" of America's democracy because it showed there is still a place in American politics for intelligence and the integrity of individuals, a place much bigger than the confines of race.

It took your record to make Obama’s win possible and you should not be allowed to hide the atrocities of your record in the euphoria of a democratic triumph.

64% of registered voters in the United States went to the polls this week. That compares to just 59.1% of Canadian voters who turned up for our election a couple of weeks ago. The voter turnout in Canada was the lowest percentage of registered voters ever recorded for a national election in this country. It’s estimated that somewhere between 600,000 and 700,000 Liberals stayed home.

That number alone would account for up to a 3 point drop in voter turnout.

Given the low Canadian turnout, it was ironic that we gathered in all parts of the country this week to watch the U.S. election. When Obama was declared the winner, thousands went into the streets to celebrate. Prime Minister Harper congratulated the President-elect, saying he's looking forward to "building a strong working relationship" with Obama’s administration so that we can continue to strengthen the special bond that exists between Canada and the United States".

Outside of Canada, there was another perspective. A 29-year-old Thai man sitting at a Starbucks in Bangkok noted that Obama is the first "truly global U.S. president” the world has ever known. He had an Asian childhood, African parentage, a Middle Eastern name and an American mother.

Why is it that Canadians seem to have difficulty generating leaders that excite people? Not since 1967 has this country had a leader who could lift people out of their chairs. Coincidentally, that leader was elected in the glow of John F. Kennedy.

Maybe Barack Obama will provide a new halo or a new model for leadership that will influence the outcome of Canada’s Liberal leadership convention in May. In the meantime, we have to occupy ourselves with the election campaign of Jean Charest as he tries to recover his majority in Quebec. With all due respect he’s not an Obama.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at mailto:bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com